Jewelry Store Near Me With Ancient Coin Rings Since 2007: Gold Bug

Gold Bug sits at 38 E Holly Street in Old Pasadena and opens Thursday through Monday from 11 am to 5 pm, staying closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. This family-owned jewelry store doubles as a gallery of natural-history curiosities, so a tray of rings can share a room with mounted beetles and carved horn. Prices on its own shop run from a Lapis Lazuli Stone Bracelet at $120 to an ancient Greek coin ring at $2,400.

The name comes from Edgar Allan Poe's 1843 story "The Gold Bug," in which a gold scarab beetle leads to buried pirate treasure. Stacey and Shelley Coleman, who had earlier run a restaurant in Seattle and a nursery on Orcas Island, opened the shop with their daughter Theodora in October 2007, while she was a senior at Occidental College. Their stated aim was to support young artists making objects by hand from natural materials.

Occidental's alumni magazine profiled the family in 2014 as Theodora prepared to take over the business, describing a childhood of treasure maps and rusted locks in her Christmas stocking. The family says every animal specimen in the shop died naturally and was sourced through museums, breeders and zoos, and Theodora calls the display a veneration of nature rather than shock value.

Gold Bug made a few moves around Old Pasadena before settling on Holly Street in September 2022, among the independent retailers that line this walkable stretch. The website calls the room a gallery with the atmosphere of a museum, and more than 100 artists rotate through it. One-of-a-kind pieces arrive and sell daily, so the online shop shows only part of what sits in the cases on any given afternoon.

The strongest reason to visit is the ancient coin jewelry. The Ancient Greek Janiform Coin Ring at $2,400 sets a silver diobol from Lampsakos, dated to the 4th-3rd century BC, in 18k gold on a sterling silver band in size 8.25. Its two back-to-back female heads were a way for Greek buyers to tell one denomination from another, long before standardized coin sizing existed.

A gentler entry point is the Marcus Aurelius Coin Ring at $680, an ancient coin bearing the emperor's head on a sterling silver band in size 8.5. The listing says the coin was inspected by a professional numismatist who specializes in ancient coinage, and a certificate describing its origin comes with the ring. Ask to see that paperwork next to the piece.

The in-house designs lean hard into symbolism. The Large Moldavite Owl Ring, $1,056, uses meteorite-impact glass hand-carved into an owl with bezel-set peridot eyes, mounted on sterling silver with hammered 18k gold accents. French artist Lou Guerin's Dragon Ring pairs sterling silver and 18k gold with a piece of carved black jet fossilized wood that reads like the ridged back of a dragon.

Not every piece is made in Pasadena. New York designer Annette Ferdinandsen's Articulated Pine Cone Earrings, $825, hang oxidized sterling silver cones 1.5 inches from 14k gold ear wires, and her carved mother-of-pearl wing earrings arrived in September. Joseph Brooks supplies knotted cord bracelets of naturally colored stones, including kyanite, carnelian and the lapis piece, whose 10mm faceted beads adjust to fit any wrist.

There is no appointment system at Gold Bug; you simply walk in during opening hours. The family describes the space as a museum where visitors are welcome to respectfully explore and ask questions, which in practice means asking staff to open a case rather than reaching past fragile specimens. For unhurried time with the coin rings, arrive at 11 am on a Thursday or Friday, before Old Pasadena's weekend crowd fills Holly Street.

Ring size is the main practical catch. Many rings exist as single pieces in one size, such as the owl at size 8 and the two coin rings at 8.25 and 8.5, and the website does not advertise resizing, so know your measurements and ask before falling for a band. Complimentary gift wrap is offered, useful when the cicada pin is a present.

Occidental's profile names the regulars who still fit this floor. Costume and set designers source statement pieces and props here, travelers arrive after reading about the shop in Japanese guidebooks and Italian magazines, and a celebrity clientele visits under the Colemans' discretion. Time Out adds the gemstone fanatic, pointing to necklaces and high-impact rings in African sunstone, green onyx, aqua chalcedony and pale yellow beryl.

October brings The Last Seance, a candlelit theatrical evening hosted at Gold Bug on October 23-25 and October 29-31, with showtimes starting at 7 pm and doors opening at 6 pm. Each gathering is limited to 10 guests, and ticket holders are asked to arrive 30 minutes early for a complimentary drink. Don't plan a jewelry browse after 5 pm on those nights, because the room belongs to ticketed guests.

Gold Bug pairs well with a short loop. Walk east on Holly Street to Memorial Park, where the A Line station sits below street level, then cross to the Armory Center for the Arts on North Raymond Avenue, a nonprofit that grew out of the old Pasadena Art Museum's education department and still shows contemporary exhibitions. From there, Colorado Boulevard and its historic Old Pasadena storefronts are a few blocks south.

With a full afternoon, end at Vroman's Bookstore on Colorado Boulevard, a longer walk or a short drive east. Ask Karpo in the Karpo APP for a route that strings Gold Bug, the Armory and Vroman's together while leaving enough time to return before the 5 pm close for a second look at a ring.

Skip Gold Bug if you need a certified diamond solitaire or a bridal fitting; the cases are built around artist pieces, ancient coins and colored stones, not engagement settings. Also avoid Tuesdays and Wednesdays, when the door stays locked. On those days, or if the coin ring in your size has sold, head to Place Vendome, a fine jewelry gallery in a turn-of-the-century courtyard off Colorado Boulevard with estate jewelry and vintage watches.

Gold Bug is at 38 E Holly Street, Pasadena, CA 91103. Hours are Thursday through Monday from 11 am to 5 pm, closed Tuesday and Wednesday. The Metro A Line's Memorial Park station is a short walk east along Holly Street, an easier arrival than hunting for weekend parking. Online orders ship, but the family says many more treasures live only in the physical room.