These highly decorative crosses are found in hundreds of forms, mostly in silver melted down from the imported Maria Theresa dollars. The earliest ‘hand’ crosses are from the 12th / 13th century in iron and it was decreed in the 15th century by Emperor Zora Ya’egob that every Christian should wear a neck cross. As most earlier crosses were made by the ‘lost wax’ method, no two crosses are exactly the same; later pieces were made by the ‘half-mould’ method, although these are rather small. It is said that the variations of designs were from different provinces.