In the 1990’s the Irish owner of World Coin Cufflinks, worked in midtown Manhattan and noticed a colleague wearing a set of old NYC subway tokens as cufflinks. Several years later in 2002 when Ireland was switching from the Irish punt to the Euro, he remembered the linking of the past to a fashion accessory, and had the idea of making the soon to be old Irish coins into cufflinks.
At first he began to give them as presents to family and friends, but then the requests came from wedding parties and business executives. The demand was enough for Brian to set up his own website www.worldcoincufflinks.com where the cufflinks, are made in Dublin.
The Irish coins represent symbols of Irish heritage and folklore, for example the Irish 10p is represented by the ‘Salmon of knowledge’ which is taken from the ancient tales of Cu Culiann.
Dramas like Mad Men may have reinvigorated interest in cufflinks, but they’ve always been the shirt fastner of choice of the more discerning gent.
These cufflinks are hand polished and mounted, cleaned and hand polished, then presented in a silver presentation box.
They’re great looking items with the added bonus of having a bit of character and the fact they used upcycled material are a great link to the past. As these coins are no longer made, they are a limited edition and make a very unique gift.
At $59 per set, using real Irish coins they will not break the bank.
The company ship to the US every day and even Bill Clinton has a pair. You can also see the cufflinks being worn on the ABC programme ‘No Ordinary Family’.
Further information www.worldcoincufflinks.com