Sterling Silver Gold plated Ostrich eggshell 2 line cuff bangle featuring Gold plated 1935 5 cent Original Old British East Africa copper gold-plated coin with 2.83cts Tanzanite
A piece that brings together East Africa’s history, natural materials and extraordinary geology in one contemporary bracelet.
At its centre is an original British East African 5 cent copper coin, once part of the currency that circulated through Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika. Five-cent coins of this type were issued by the East African Currency Board and circulated across the region, making the coin a tangible fragment of East Africa’s complex monetary and trading history.
SuhaniMara gives this old currency a new life, combining it with our Signature Ostrich Eggshell, a material deeply connected to Africa, where ostrich eggshell has been fashioned into personal adornment for centuries. Archaeological evidence across eastern and southern Africa records ostrich eggshell beads alongside glass and metal ornaments, reflecting a long tradition of transforming natural materials into objects of beauty and meaning.
Set into the eggshell is Tanzanite, one of East Africa’s most remarkable gemstones. This blue-to-violet variety of zoisite is commercially mined in only one place in the world: the Merelani Hills of northern Tanzania, near Mount Kilimanjaro. Discovered in the 1960s and named for Tanzania, its shifting blue and violet tones make it an unmistakably East African gem.
Finally, the bracelet is gold plated, bringing warmth and luminosity to the aged coin and organic eggshell and creating a bridge between antiquity and contemporary jewellery.
Coin, eggshell, gemstone and gold come together as layers of East Africa, its history, its landscape and its natural treasures reimagined into something that can be worn, preserved and passed on.
Part of SuhaniMara’s Coined in Time collection, it reflects the heart of the brand: taking materials that already carry a story and giving them a new chapter.
