Buddy, can you spare a tetradrachm?

By Mark Hansel

Friday, Jan. 9, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Rare coins and beautiful jewelry are highly sought by collectors, and for more than a dozen years, a Las Vegas retailer has been offering shoppers the best of both worlds.

Ancient Creations purchases rare coins and artifacts from auction houses such as Sotheby’s and Christie’s and transforms them into handmade jewelry.

The company ships the pieces to its manufacturing facility on Industrial Road, where master jewelers combine rare coins and precious metals in a state-of-the-art facility. The creations are, in some cases, thousands of years old and can be worn as fashionable accessories instead of stored in a safe-deposit box.

Ancient Creations, which was founded in 1996, has showrooms in Appian Way at Caesars Palace and Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian,

The collection of coins and artifacts is offered individually or as jewelry items and provides a history lesson from virtually every major empire throughout the world.

A silver tetradrachm — an ancient coin — that shows Hercules in the image of Alexander the Great, for example, is more 2,000 years old and sells for $1,500. The piece is significant because it was among those that helped establish uniform designs and weights for coins, a practice that has been copied for centuries throughout the world. It also links the Greek ruler Alexander to Hercules, from whom he believed he was descended.

“We consider ourselves framers of history, more than jewelers,” said Allan Sampson, co-founder of Ancient Creations. “The reasons people buy from us is usually because of a spiritual connection or for nationalistic reasons. New Testament or Old Testament coins are very popular as are coins that connect people to their backgrounds.”

Each item, Sampson points out, is one of a kind because it is hand-struck.

In addition to rare coins, other historically significant artifacts offered are cuneiforms, among the earliest forms of written contract from ancient Mesopotamia that dates from more than 5,000 years.

There are also unusual items, such as dinosaur eggs, ancient weaponry and in a nod to the heritage of Las Vegas, dice from the Roman Empire that date from the first century.

Items range from less than $100 for a simple widow’s mite from the Holy Land to upward of $20,000, for a less common piece in an elaborate setting. Items don’t have to be ancient to be valuable. A silver tobacco box from Nanking, China, for example, which dates from A.D. 1905, is listed for $11,000.

“The artifacts and coins tend to go up in value, so as we buy things the prices will hold strong for us, but the replacement value goes up, so we have to constantly review our pricing,” Sampson said. “Part of it is the availability. There was a lot of coinage coming out of Eastern Europe, but it’s dried up now, so with a short-term effect on availability and a huge interest from the standpoint of people wanting to have coins like that, it has changed the market considerably in the last 24 months.”

The selection of items includes rings, bracelets, earrings, cuff links, money clips and other artifacts and antiquities from the great empires of the world. Historical figures include Greek and Roman deities, as well as kings, emperors and religious leaders. Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, Oriental and Persian artifacts are among those represented in the company’s collection.

Every item purchased comes with a historical certificate and guarantee of authenticity.

Mark Hansel covers retail and marketing for In Business Las Vegas and its sister publication, the Las Vegas Sun. He can be reached at 259-4069 or at [email protected].