Creating a gold ring from a coin

Making a ring with a coin is a jewelry classic.

Over time and whatever the country, we find heirlooms or old rings with vintage gold or silver coins mounted on rings.

These parts can be mounted caulked or bent so as to partially compose the body of the ring. This type of men’s ring is usually topped with an old coin that lies flat, while women’s rings often feature a curved coin.

Even today in France many people make custom rings with Louis gold coins or Napoleon gold coins which have historical as well as financial value.

Personalized Gold Coin Ring

As we will see in this article, in the following project, we describe the creation of a men’s signet ring surmounted by a relief engraving taken from the Portuguese coat of arms present on a Portuguese coin minted in 1948.

The coin ring design

The design of our ring is that of a simple signet ring topped with a raised engraving, a faithful copy of the face of an ancient Portuguese coin.

This piece is not in gold while the ring design is in solid 18k yellow gold, it is not possible for us to mount the piece on the ring, so we will have to reproduce the model.

We then use the computer tool to create a 3D model of the ring incorporating the engraving of the face of the piece making a change to the date 1948 replaced by 1984.

Digital mockup views of coin ring project

This virtual model allows us to both modify the original design and ensure that the final result fully meets the project sponsor’s expectations.

Virtual views in photographic format of our project before its launch into production

Once the design is validated, we can begin the physical fabrication of our ring using the 3D printing process to obtain a resin model of our ring.

View of the 3D print of our digital model

The goldsmith’s workmanship of the ring

In possession of the physical resin model of our ring project, we can move on to the lost wax casting phase.

A refractory plaster mold is made containing our resin model. The latter is then burned to enhance the resin model which leaves an empty space in the mold.

The molten yellow gold is then poured into the mold, the liquid gold then occupies the space left free by our resin model.

This video shows the steps of this process.

This process allows us to obtain our raw gold ring consistent with the digital design and the physical model obtained through 3D printing.

Gold ring coming out of the foundry phase

As you can see in this image, we can clearly see on the raw cast iron ring all the details of the Portuguese coat of arms visible on the reference coin reported at the beginning of the article.

Then the finishing touches begin with the recast and polishing of the ring and the details of the engraving on the plaque.

Front view of the engraving on the ring tray

Signet ring worn on the finger of the hand

Here are some examples of processing of gold rings with engraving of coats of arms, medals, coats of arms or seals made in our laboratory:

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