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Love Tokens

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Author	Topic: Love Tokens
Paul Lemieux Posts: 1792 Registered: Apr 2000	posted 06-20-2006 11:28 PM One type of jewelry that provides an enormous variety of intriguing examples is the love token. Love tokens are a form of exonumia (objects that resemble legal tender coins) where one or both faces of a coin are smoothed out and engraved or otherwise decorated. As the name love token implies, most are sentimental in nature, having been engraved with a set of initials and given as gifts to loved ones. However, the most enchanting and desirable love tokens frequently incorporate pictorial designs, organizational emblems, unusual motifs, gemstones, and enamel. Depending on his or her wealth, the giver could have used everything from a copper half-penny to a $20 gold piece. Love tokens can be found singly as charms, grouped on a bracelet, as brooches, etc. Illustrated below are a few examples that range from mediocre to fascinating. This is perhaps the most common form--a charm fashioned from a silver dime, with a conventional monogram engraved on one face. This dime is engraved on one side with an abridged version of Longfellow's "A Summer Day by the Sea," in addition to the word "May," either the month or the name. The reverse reads "1887-8". Whether this love token celebrates a happy event or commemorates a tragedy is ambiguous. These five tokens are slightly better because of the different Japanese-style engraved decoration on each. Inscriptions such as "Josie" and "Grandma" are also more interesting than three initials. The bracelet itself was made by the Whiting Mfg. Co., and the love tokens range in date from 1877 to 1887. IP: Logged
Paul Lemieux Posts: 1792 Registered: Apr 2000	posted 06-20-2006 11:36 PM This colorful bracelet, made entirely from 1891 dimes, showcases a variety of fun motifs: a shoe, a black cat, a hand offering a bowl of cereal, and, on Mama's token, a leaping elk. The non-pictorial tokens are decorated with variously styled and enameled monograms. This pin is made from two quarters and a half-dollar. The obverses of the coins have been acid-etched and engraved with a monogram, a bee, and a bat. The reverses were also polished smooth, so the coins can't be dated exactly, but the brooch was probably created in the 1880s. Does anybody have other love tokens to share? IP: Logged
Paul Lemieux Posts: 1792 Registered: Apr 2000	posted 06-21-2006 09:54 PM Here is one more example, a pair of earrings made from 1843 & 1838 Canadian 1 1/2 pieces. Each is finely engraved with an armorial design. I don't have a heraldry reference, so unfortunately, I can't identify the family. IP: Logged
Brent Posts: 1507 Registered: May 99	posted 06-21-2006 10:43 PM Neat stuff! I think these things are quite charming and very undervalued. I wish I had some pictures to share, but I do recall seeing a love token from the War of 1812, whhc was pretty neat. On a more sinister note, I also recall seeing a genuine KKK watch fob made from an 1865 silver quarter. Brent IP: Logged
chicagosilver Posts: 227 Registered: Aug 2005	posted 06-23-2006 01:24 PM Very interesting. These aren't quite the same, but I've come across a few pieces of coin-based jewelry like this Kalo pin: that add a 3D Liberty face to a US coin. Were these patriotic? Most of the ones I've found use coins from around WWI, although I have some that were based on 1900 and 1912 coins. IP: Logged
FWG Posts: 845 Registered: Aug 2005	posted 06-23-2006 03:05 PM I've had several pieces with coins treated like chicagosilver's, and most have been on coins from WWI or earlier, back I think to the late 19C. All I can remember have been on dimes, quarters, and halves, including a bracelet and a watch-fob with all three sizes in graduated sequence. Never knew anything about why or when they were made, though. [This message has been edited by FWG (edited 06-23-2006).] IP: Logged
dragonflywink Posts: 993 Registered: Dec 2002	posted 06-23-2006 03:32 PM Wonderful pieces! I like the link bracelet with the enamel in particular. Cheryl ;o) IP: Logged
Ulysses Dietz Moderator Posts: 1265 Registered: May 99	posted 06-29-2006 08:57 AM There was a man in Hackensack, NJ, who patented a process to use coins with various heads "bursting through" in novelty jewelry. The Newark Museum was given a group of thirteen pieces of this a couple of years ago; a watch fob with the heads of three dead presidents (Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley) is currently on view. Liberty's head is another image that appears. I'll try to get the patent date(s) and an image when I'm back in the office. IP: Logged

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