The Diminishing Supply of Ethnic Silver Jewelry

The bulk of a tribal woman’s jewelry was acquired when she married, through wedding gifts and dowry money. More might be purchased by her husband or her during the course of their marriage, but a woman’s jewelry was made new for her and not often passed down. There was a long tradition of jewelry being melted to make way for the new, but traditional patterns were followed.  

A number of socio-economic shifts around the world have led to the further scarcity of authentic ethnic silver jewelry. Here are a few of them: 

Long the staple for dowry jewelry, silver has been replaced by gold as metal of choice in many areas. Silver was being seen as old-fashioned and less attractive by the more urbane. Just the weight alone of tribal silver jewelry was intimidating, sometimes being many kilos for a full costume.

The economic disruption of war has always been a major reason for peoples to sell their jewelry. The displacement of tribal peoples by conflict also threatens the continuity of ethnic traditions. The Vietnam War, as an example, adversely affected nearby Laos, which was unable to maintain neutrality. It became a battlefield between North Vietnam and the United States. Many peoples were forced to flee their villages into refugee camps, and then flee the country, by the threat of Communist takeover. Laos is still recovering.

Interest in ethnic jewelry as a collectible has raised the prices and put pressure on women to sell their possessions. Jewelry dealers--“jewelry hunters”--who scour the globe for handmade ethnic jewelry, have depleted the supply. Ethnic peoples are accustomed to selling silver jewelry by weight. Craftsmanship is not factored. However, the end price for a beautiful piece can be substantial.

In the 1960s, movie stars began wearing ethnic jewelry, particularly Native American. This led to an interest in tribal jewelry which has not disappeared. Great demand and cheap production costs have seen more and more ethnic-style jewelry made for export, having little to do with tribal use. A great quantity of silver jewelry is even misrepresented. It may be called Native American jewelry, but was made in China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, or the Philippines. It may not even contain silver.

A lot of the world’s silver jewelry still exists today, but in the form of silver bars. “The Great Silver Melt of 1980,” really encompassed the years 1979 and 1980. However, the aggressive melting of silver, in the USA for example, began in the 1960s, when the silver supply for coins diminished and led to jumps in the silver market. By 1964, no silver was used in minting US coins and hoarding and melting began. A staggering amount of silver was melted during the "Great Silver Melt." Millions and millions of silver objects were scrapped for cash conversion around the world. Estimates vary, but approximately 10 to 25 per cent of old silver coins are thought to remain intact in collections today.

We are now faced with the dilemma of whether to hold our own old gold jewelry or “cash it in.” The payout can be high, but buying new gold jewelry is prohibitive. Perhaps the important thing to consider is that once that jewelry is smashed and melted, it’s forever gone. (D.H.)