ADAM'S Fine Jewellery & Ladies Watches 12th May 2026

145 Few jewellers have understood as instinctively as Bul- gari that antiquity can be made not only relevant, but irresistible. With Monete , the house did not simply revive an ancient tradition: it transformed it into one of its most distinctive and alluring signatures, where history, glamour, and design meet with unmistakably Roman confidence. The idea of wearing coins as jewellery is almost as old as coinage itself. Ancient coins were mounted and worn in the classical world, and the practice contin- ued through Roman and Byzantine culture, before returning in later centuries in new forms, from Renais- sance medals to nineteenth-century archaeological revival jewels. What Bulgari grasped was that this long tradition could be reimagined not as an exercise in nostalgia, but as something vivid, sensual, and entire- ly of its own time. The origins of the collection lay with Nicola Bulgari, whose passion for coins found a natural expression within the house’s creative language. That fascination had deep personal roots. As he later recalled, his in- terest in ancient coins had been awakened early on, and in the mid-1960s it was Bulgari that resumed the long-standing tradition of setting ancient coins into jewellery, giving new life to a form with origins that stretch back to the classical world. What made Monete feel so new was not the coin alone, but the way Bulgari chose to see it. Coins were prized not merely as historical fragments, but for their intrinsic beauty: the strength of a profile, the softness of worn relief, the mystery of a patina shaped by time. Heads of Alexander the Great, Roma, Athena, Arethu- sa and the Caesars were chosen as much for their sculptural presence as for what they represented. In Bulgari’s hands, the coin ceased to be an archaeolog- ical object and became the centre of the jewel itself. That transformation was achieved through contrast, one of Bulgari’s greatest strengths. The worn surface of an ancient silver or bronze coin was set against the smooth polish of yellow gold; age was framed by clar- ity, patina by brilliance, irregularity by sleek modern form. Rather than disguise the marks of time, Bulgari made them part of the jewel’s seduction. The result was neither antiquarian nor nostalgic, but boldly con- temporary: an ancient fragment reawakened through design. This is what gave Monete its unique glamour. Rooted in Rome, nourished by the city’s intimacy with the an- cient world, the collection captured the spirit of the 1960s while remaining unlike anything else in high jewellery. Its appeal quickly extended from collectors and connoisseurs to women such as Elizabeth Taylor, for whom Bulgari itself became part of the mythology of Roman glamour. What Monete expresses, perhaps more clearly than any other Bulgari collection, is the house’s extraor- dinary instinct for continuity without imitation. By mounting ancient coins as jewels, Bulgari was not copying the past, but translating it into a language entirely of its own. In that lies its enduring fascination and its enduring modernity: the ability to transform fragments of the ancient world into contemporary, highly collectable designs. Rooted in Roman antiquity yet unmistakably modern, Monete remains one of Bulgari’s most iconic and col- lectable collections: a masterclass in balancing the weight of history with the lightness, sensuality, and splendour of great jewellery.