ANTIQUE HANDMADE STERLING SILVER BRACELET. DESCRIPTION: This old hand wrought cuff bracelet features intricate designs. The hand-stamped edges are carinated, and thick twisted silver wire serves as an additional border. This collectible bracelet will be a cherished addition to your collection of the very finest vintage Southwestern and Native American jewelry. Size bracelet is 5″¼ plus 1″½ gap 18mm wide weight 29.5grams great addition to your collection no marks but tested as coin silver Navajo coin silver jewelry is the jewelry made when the Navajo first began making silver jewelry in the late 19th century. The Navajo got silver coins from the U. Calvary and the trading posts. The Navajo melted them down into ingots and other silver forms. They then would hand forge or hammer the silver into jewelry Navajo coin silver jewelry was originally made primarily with U.. Coins such as U. Silver dollars, fifty cent pieces, quarters and dimes. These and old metal wagon and harness fillings were melted down and hammered as there was such a lack of raw material. When in 1890 a U. Law made defacing a U. Coin illegal, Mexican pesos were used. The pesos had been used along side U. Coins before, but were used pretty much used exclusively at that point. Their silver content was a little higher than U. Coins, and that made them softer and easier to hand hammer. Thus they were actually preferred to U. Coins by some of the early silversmiths. However in 1930, the Mexican coins were forbidden to be exported to the American Southwest. In the 1930s sterling silver in sheets and wire became available, which have been used by Native American jewelers to the present. This brought an end to the making of Navajo coin silver jewelry.