Jessica McCormack’s Medallions capsule turns antique coins into modern heirlooms

A capsule built like a pocket relic

Jessica McCormack’s Medallions capsule is an 11-piece study in antique-coin language, recast for summer 2026 as jewelry with memory built in. The collection leans on familiar symbols, crying eye, heart on fire, spiral, flower, and swallow, and treats them less like ornament than like compact personal emblems.

That is the appeal here: the pieces feel discovered rather than newly invented. In a market crowded with loud logos and fragile trends, Medallions makes a sharper argument for self-purchase, offering objects that can carry meaning without surrendering wearability.

London handwork gives the coins their patina

The collection’s credibility starts with craft. Each medallion is handcrafted and finished in Jessica McCormack’s London workshop, and the surfaces are intentionally worn so the jewelry reads as if it has already lived a life.

Hallmarks and softened edges matter because they keep the pieces from looking like costume coins or novelty charms. McCormack’s use of traditional Georgian goldsmithing techniques reinforces that effect, giving the medallions the quiet density of heirlooms rather than the polish of something made to feel new for one season only.

Cry Baby turns the crying eye into a sharp charm

Among the capsule’s most resonant motifs is Cry Baby, which turns the crying eye into a compact talisman with a slightly mischievous edge. The standard Cry Baby Diamond Pendant is priced at $28,000, a number that places it firmly in the collector-jewelry lane rather than the impulse-buy category.

There is also a Cry Baby 3.02ct Diamond Pendant with pricing available on request, which suggests a more substantial, likely more dramatic variation on the same symbol. That tiering is smart: it gives the motif a range of entry points while preserving its status as a serious jewel, not a novelty icon.

Wild at Heart makes romance look less delicate

The Wild at Heart Diamond Pendant, also priced at $28,000, translates the heart motif into something hotter and less sentimental. The “heart on fire” idea gives the design a charge that feels closer to devotion than decoration, especially when set against the collection’s antique-coin vocabulary.

For self-purchasers, that emotional register matters. A heart pendant can easily drift into cliché; here, the antique styling keeps it from feeling saccharine, while the diamond treatment gives it enough brightness to stand alone or hold its own in a layered necklace stack.

Flower Power and Fern bring the softer symbols

Flower Power Diamond Pendant and Fern Diamond Pendant are both priced at $28,000, and together they widen the capsule’s emotional range. The flower motif reads as generosity and bloom, while fern brings a quieter, more botanical calm, the kind of symbol that feels personal without becoming overly precious.

These are the pieces that will likely resonate with buyers who want meaning but prefer it understated. They work because the motifs are recognizable at a glance, yet the antique-coin framing keeps them from slipping into literalism.

Swallows & Amazons adds movement to the lineup

The Swallows & Amazons Diamond Pendant is the most narrative of the group, priced at $35,000 and named with a sense of travel, sailing, and escape. The swallow is a familiar heritage motif, but here it feels especially suited to summer dressing, where movement and ease matter as much as symbolism.

It is also one of the more collectible-looking pieces in the assortment because the reference carries a built-in story. That makes it a strong choice for anyone who likes jewelry to suggest a private world, not just a polished surface.

The larger Cry Baby pendant gives the capsule a louder center of gravity

If the smaller Cry Baby pendant is a signet-like whisper, the 3.02ct version is the statement chapter. On request pricing also signals scarcity and a more tailored sales experience, which fits a piece that is meant to feel substantial, rare, and deeply personal.

This is where McCormack’s antique language becomes especially effective. The symbol stays the same, but the scale changes the mood: less charm, more relic, as if the medallion has been amplified into a modern-day badge of feeling.

The Long Guard Lapis & Diamond 16-inch necklace anchors the collection

The capsule’s necklace offering starts with the Long Guard Lapis & Diamond 16-inch necklace, priced at $25,250. It is the most accessible entry point in the lineup and likely the one that most clearly signals how McCormack wants these pieces worn: close to the collarbone, visible, and easy to layer.

Lapis adds a deep, saturated blue that contrasts well with gold and diamond, giving the necklace a summer brightness without losing the vintage mood. At this price, it sits below the more diamond-heavy pendants, making it a strategic bridge between signature house style and a more wearable, chain-led purchase.

The Long Guard Lapis & 3.90ct Diamond 17-inch necklace pushes the format higher

At $69,500, the Long Guard Lapis & 3.90ct Diamond 17-inch necklace is the most expensive named piece in the range and the clearest sign that this is still a high-jewelry capsule. The extra length and diamond weight give it more visual sweep, which should matter to buyers who want a necklace that can function as a central piece rather than just an accent.

The contrast between the two Long Guard necklaces is useful. One is a relatively restrained everyday proposition by luxury standards; the other is an object of clear consequence, built for those who want lapis, diamonds, and scale to register immediately.

Detachable clasps make the medallions easy to layer

McCormack’s website says the pendants have detachable clasps, which means they can be paired with a Ball n Chain or Beaches Pearl necklace and styled alongside the label’s signature Gypset pieces. That detail is not cosmetic, it is the mechanism that turns the capsule into a wardrobe system rather than a one-off drop.

The brand’s own framing, worn from sunrise to sundown, whether at the beach or out to dinner, makes sense only because of that flexibility. Medallions can sit on a pearl strand, a chain, or in conversation with other house codes, so the collection behaves like modern heirloom jewelry that is meant to be lived in, not locked away.

Why the collection lands now: McCormack’s biography, pricing, and New York

McCormack’s own backstory explains why the capsule feels so coherent. She grew up in New Zealand surrounded by art and antiquities collected by her father, an auctioneer, began in Sotheby’s jewelry department, launched her brand in 2008, and built a design language around revived antique techniques made wearable today.

That identity now has a stronger American stage. Jessica McCormack opened its first U.S. store at 743 Madison Avenue in New York in 2025, inside a two-floor Beaux-Arts building established in 1879, and the space carries the complete signature collection plus New York-exclusive Exceptional Stones. Medallions arrives inside that broader expansion with a clear message: antique language still sells when it is handled with enough conviction, enough wearability, and enough emotional intelligence to feel like the next heirloom before it ever becomes the first.