Trench-Art Bracelet

 During World War I, and again during the Second World War, soldiers used to pass the time in the trenches by making small objects out of shell casings, scraps of metal, and coins. 

Often these objects were given to loved ones or sweethearts waiting at home.

This bracelet is an example of trench art from World War II. 

The bracelet was made out of Australian coins, probably by an American GI who was stationed in Australia, for his wife or girlfriend. The coins were rounded out from the back, as you can see in the second photo, and joined with small rings. 

 The bracelet was too small for my wrist, so I added a length of chain with a crystal and a handmade hook. 

The central coin is a 1944 Australian shilling, with King George VI on the face, and a curly-horned sheep on the reverse.  The smaller coins are six pences and three pences, some shaped to show the face and others the reverse of the coins. 

It's a very nice example of trench art jewelry. 

@ Jeanne Sather 2009. 

Comments

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To the uninitiated, all trench art, by definition, was made by a soldier sitting in a trench in France during the First World War, in the midst of a bombardment. To the cynics, it was all made in the 1920s by enterprising French and Belgian citizens. The reality is, naturally, a mix of these extremes, and everything in between, and spans conflicts from the Napoleonic Wars to the present day.

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You will be interested to know that these coins were actually minted in the United States for Australia during the war. That adds a little twist to the trench art made from them--and there is a wide variety of such trench art.