Thebes Amphora Coin Earrings

In the 4th century BC, the city of Thebes stood among the great powers of the Greek world.

Its silver coinage carried imagery that made its origins immediately recognisable. One side commonly displayed the distinctive Boeotian shield, while the reverse could feature beautifully rendered objects from the visual culture of Classical Greece.

Among them was the volute-krater.

With its tall body, elegant foot and great curling handles, the krater was a vessel associated with the mixing of wine and water. In Greek art its distinctive silhouette appears across pottery, metalwork and coinage, becoming one of the most recognisable vessel forms of antiquity.

On the Theban silver stater chosen to accompany this design, the krater occupies the centre of the coin, framed by Greek lettering and the uneven circular edge created through ancient striking.

The Thebes Coin Earrings transform that tiny silver image into gold.

Each pendant preserves the vessel, lettering and irregular character of the original coin while turning a surviving fragment of Classical Greek material culture into wearable jewellery.

A design once struck into silver in ancient Boeotia now appears again, more than two thousand years later.

Ancient Thebes, struck again in gold.