For centuries, Palestinian women used Ottoman coins in their Jewelry. Coins were used in earrings, necklaces, head covers and veils. Married women received their dowries in the form of jewelry decorated with silver coins. Such a tradition meant to show off the wealth of the groom and the more the coins the wealthier he is.
Another practical and safety reason is that when a woman wears her coins as jewelry, it becomes harder for someone to steal them when they are on her body rather than hidden at home. In Muslim countries, saved monies and unworn precious metals such as gold and silver require the owner of such treasures to pay Zakat, which is a tax collected by the Muslim government to be distributed on the poor. Wearing the family’s wealth and treasures meant avoiding paying such a tax.

The jewelry item that included the largest number of coins was usually head covers (Shatweh)(Saffeh) and (Wiqayat Al-Darahem).

Many pieces of jewelry contained embroidery and the combination of coins and beads to show the level of aesthetics that a woman has. In a rare piece that was found in Hebron, a whole red silk jacket was covered with silver Ottoman coins.

Palestinian women also used amulets and blue beads to protect them from the evil eye. Carnelian was used to ensure fertility and amber (Anbar) was worn to bring good health and coral (Murjan) is supposed to bring prosperity.

 
       
I have always loved our traditional jewelry and bought as much as I could whenever I was able to. Genuine pieces of jewelry, especially the head covers cost thousands of dollars these days since they are rare and women who have them express so much pride in wearing them and thus, such pieces are rarely found on sale. They are valuable pieces of our ancient heritage and history and are usually displayed in museums or part of private Palestinian collections.

Some describe our jewelry as exotic and sometimes it is described as jewelry for “belly dancers” (Raqs Sharqi) dancers. Our mothers and grandmothers were neither exotic nor “belly dancers,” but they were beautiful women who proudly wore their traditional jewelry like indigenous women did all over the world.
       

  
Courtesy of Palestinian heritage Foundation

  
This site offers you the chance to enjoy the beauty of such jewelry in its traditional and yet modernized design. Due to the rarity of Ottoman coins, we realized that focusing on Ottoman coins would limit our growth and at the same time would allow only a few to obtain such jewelry. Thus, the idea of using coins from all over the world was born to allow us to share this traditional Arab and Islamic style with everyone. We have coins from over 150 countries from all over the world. Some states’ coins will never be included for ethical and moral reasons. If you don’t find your country, please understand that some coins are hard to find and if you would like us to make a piece of jewelry representing your country, please inform us about ways to obtain coins from your country.

By wearing our jewelry decorated with coins from your country, you will have the chance to wear and promote the history of your country and your ancestors.

Each piece of jewelry that we have was named after a woman from the country it represents. Some of those women have departed us and some are still alive. The women we choose to name our jewelry after are women who did deeds (mostly good ones) that earned them our respect and compelled us to honor them by naming our jewelry after them. Some of the women who departed us were victims of different forms of violence. If you feel that a certain woman or women from your country deserve to be honored and we are not aware of them, please do send us these names and why you think they should be honored. Of course, we reserve the right to reject certain names of women whom we believe do not honor us as women and human beings. When we are unable to find names of women, we choose names of national symbols or cities and towns.

    
This business is by women and for women. Through it, we wish to honor Palestinian and Arab and Muslim women who preserved this tradition and passed it along to us and taught us that without our history and beautiful tradition we can never have a future to be proud of. We also wish to honor women from all over the world and acknowledge their history, deeds and dedication to advancing the rights of women and the national and human rights of their nations.