Each of these necklaces holds a bronze or silvered bronze coin minted during the reign of Constantine the Great (AD 306–337), the first Roman emperor to embrace Christianity and forever transform the ancient world. Struck in imperial mints across the empire: Siscia (modern-day Sisak, Croatia), Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey), Ticinum (Pavia, Italy), and Arelate (Arles, France), these coins reflect a time when the political power of the Roman Empire was at its peak.
The coins, remarkably well preserved across seventeen centuries, each bear different portraits of Constantine, gazing resolutely to the right and underscoring the forceful emperor he became. Their reverse designs vary: soldiers flanking standards, twin Victories holding a shield over an altar, and laurel wreaths enclosing imperial vows, all reflecting the political symbolism and ideological messaging of the late Roman Empire. Their legends speak in Latin of triumph, stability, and eternity: VOT XX, GLORIA EXERCITVS, VICTORIAE LAETAE PRINC PERP.
Each coin is held within a cross-shaped pendant inspired by a mosaic in the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. In the mosaic, Constantine offers his city to Christ, crowned with a cruciform diadem of equal arms, symbol of balance, unity, and eternity. Sassi’s design echoes this motif in 18k yellow gold, cradling the ancient artefact and suspending it from a blackened rhodium-plated silver chain, secured with the Maison’s signature S-lock in gold. Here, the ancient and the contemporary converge. Once objects of daily use and imperial communication, these coins are now transformed into intimate heirlooms: quiet testaments to Constantine’s legacy and the rise of Christianity.
The story of these Constantine necklaces is anchored in a personal legacy. The first pendant, set with a Nummus from Siscia, was acquired by a father who deeply admires Constantine the Great, a ruler whose vision and embrace of Christianity resonated with his own faith and values.
Later, upon receiving the devastating news of a terminal illness, he resolved to extend this legacy to his family. He commissioned three additional pendants for his sons, each set with a coin of Constantine. They are all different, minted in distinct regions of the empire and reflecting different moments in the emperor’s reign, yet united by whom they represent. Together, the four pendants form a quiet constellation: symbols of unity, strength, and faith, destined to pass from father to sons.
These necklaces carry the legacy of Constantine, a figure whose vision and faith reflected the father’s own. In them, he entrusted to his sons a bond of strength and belief that transcends time. These fragments of an empire became symbols of eternity.
