Part 4 Reasearch Question

How did this coin mange to empower the women who wore it? Through class, race and culture, it broke barriers as it passed hands. As gold coinage, and currency that was not made easily accessible tot the general public, it was a coveted… thus remaining in the forefront of society, something easily noticeable, something which was displayed proudly by my great grandmother… But how did this change once my grandmother came to own it, it not only represented all these things she hated, class and race division, but the switch from currency to jewellery pushed it to the background as it was taken for granted, my grandmother wanted to relinquish those notions of superiority and distain… as a mixed race WOMAN she wanted to let go of the passed shame she had felt in Jamaica… the stigma of being non-white.

1.     Why converted to jewellery? (My great grandma married an Indian man, so maybe she wanted to also reject the ideas of race and class…but she displayed them proudly… conflicted?)

2.     What did it mean when my grandmother dismantled the necklaces? (How does that speak to her sentiments of what that object represented?)

3.     How does the advent of racism and the Indian influx into Jamaica speak to the understanding of what that necklace represented to not only my family but within society as a whole?

4.     How did the coin(s) play along, or against, the normative constructs of what:

a) Currency was used for

b) Jewellery represented

c) Display of class

d) Gender

e) Race

Part 3 Social Cultural Context

The coin, as I have now learned, was not used as currency as one would consider currency today. It was in fact a form of payment, yes, but valued based on the weight of gold and size of the coin being given. These coins were never intended to be used in public circulation, as mostly gentry and “nobility” were the recipients, and traded them not only amongst themselves, but were used as barter abroad. From what I have been told and found through some archival digging, most of these coins began their lives in the southern United States, where upper class consisted of cotton and sugar estates owners. As mentioned, the coins were used as barter and payment abroad; well this is where my coin apparently came to be in Jamaica. A lot of sugar estates in Jamaica were owned by American and English businessmen and were operated by whites that were either from abroad, or born to the wealthy (and minority) white population in Jamaica. My great grandmother was among this minority, born in Jamaica but of English decent, as both her parents (my great, great grandparents) were English, and took up plantation and land ownership before Jamaican independence from Britain. With that said, the coins were procured by my great grandmother as payment for her services and as a token of appreciation from a distant relative who had commissioned my family to tend to the several cane fields in the parish of St. Thomas (two hours north of Kingston). As I have also found to be interesting about these coins, was their use as gifts to nobility visiting the United States from England, as they were made of pure 24 karat gold, and as such, were highly significant among anyone who would received them. In the case of the exact coin I have chosen to expand my research on, it was not common to have these pieces converted to jewellery, so my great grandmother must have had some particular want to show her wealth, as putting such things on display was very noticeable among the vast amounts of poor non-white labourers and country dwellers in the area surrounding her house.

Part 2 Historical Context

As mentioned in part one of this assignment, the original owner of the gold coin was my great grandmother, whom I have never met. It was passed down to my grandmother at birth along with several other coins, some larger and some smaller, this particular one being on the smaller end of the spectrum. What I have recently learned about its use is quite intriguing actually. As I was speaking to my aunt about it, she informed me that it was originally used as actual currency. This lead me to answer my question from part one about the confusion of whether it was solid gold or plated. It was in fact, manufactured as a solid piece of gold and not re- cast from nickel. Now, the story behind where the coin, or coins, was procured is still a mystery. As the story is told, my great grandmother was a woman of superior wealth and as such, was well connected amongst the affluent men and women who would have the luxury of traveling to and from Europe, and of course, the United States. It is thought that she received them as gifts or payment for some sort of business venture she was involved in, probably something to do with sugar cane fields, as this was her main source of income, among other trading goods. This particular coin was then passed down to my aunt, with whom I live with now. As I was told, the coin itself was given as part of a dowry to my aunt’s first husband and was then taken back by my aunt when they divorced sometime in the early 1970’s. If one were to map out its journey to my safe today, it would be pretty simple. As previously mentioned, it originates from somewhere in the United States (still exactly unknown) to Jamaica, to Ottawa, and then Montreal and finally here in Toronto. Not much is known exactly what significance it has as to its historical significance, but as I am told, it was simply used as barter and currency all over the United States, and ceased to do so once it landed in the hands of my great grandmother, as it was converted to jewelery.  The impression I have always had of this object was that it was simply some sort of interesting gold coin my aunt had. It sparked my interest once I saw it as part of its “original” jewelery piece in a photograph of my grandmother from the late 1940’s, before it was dismantled and distributed amongst my uncles and aunts, and eventually some of which was given to my mother. It was worn as a necklace, braided with silk and rope, with the largest of the coins resting in the center (collar bone region) of the wearer’s neck. As of late, it has been sitting in a safe in my house, along with two other larger coins. Throughout my life, however, both my mother and aunt wore it regularly, and eventually I began to wear it on a gold rope chain.