Love Tokens

Anna Elizabeth Henry

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Love tokens got there start over the pond in Britain in the early 19th century. The custom drifted across the sea, probably with immigration and picked up in popularity in the United States right before the Civil War. I imagine our ladies received these tokens from their sweethearts heading off into battle as a token to remember them by and were surely treasured by the women.

The token was created from a coin, most commonly used was the Liberty dime as it was silver and often was the most affordable to have transformed. The front of the coin would be flattened and then engraved by hand, usually with initials.

Below is an example of the Liberty dime with the most common design of interlocking initials. Often the initials were of your sweetheart or husband. The exception would be for men proposing and using the token as an engagement gift, who would then give a woman initials featuring the first letter of her first name and the first letter of his last as a way to ask her to change her name to his.

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The most common love tokens of the time featured what’s known as ‘triple-overlapping initials’ similar to the one above, often in an interlocking pattern. Others were just of two initialed letters. Some believe that the widest letter usually represented the surname, while the tallest typically represented the first name, although experts say that these rules can vary depending on the artist and what worked best for the design.

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Some tokens had holes drilled in the top so they could be worn on a chain; others were made into pins and often worn under a woman’s dress close to her heart as a way to keep her beloved close to her even though he was hundreds of miles from home.

If your sweetheart had enough money he’d use a gold coin and have it etched with a pretty scene. The gold example below has a hole bored into it with a bird – perhaps a dove or maybe even a carrier pigeon since it appears to be bearing a letter with initials on it.


Pictorial love tokens are sought after by collectors today. Many depict flowers, lighthouses, landscapes and of course hearts. These more elaborate engravings cost significantly more money than the simple initialed silver dimes since the etching was done by hand. Such scenes also conveyed messages, much the way flowers have meanings during the era. Ivy symbolized constancy, lighthouses stood for a safe harbor. Some love tokens even depicted musical instruments or tools that represented either a beloved’s talent or the sweetheart’s skill/trade.

Not all love tokens were for sweethearts and wives. Some were engraved with first names and could be from a parent or sibling.

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Others were given as gifts to parents and other beloved family members and engraved with relationship terms like ‘mother’, ‘father’, or ‘aunt’. Below is a one beautifully inscribed one with mother on it.


During the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 there were booths churning out love tokens for young lovers attending the world’s fair together. After that boom the trend started to fade. It’s possible that it had a lot to do with the popularity of lockets that could then contain paper photographs of your sweetheart, which weren’t as affordable previously or just like any trendy item it may have seem dated to the younger generation and fell out of fashion.

You can still find vintage love tokens online at eBay and Etsy for reasonable prices. My sweetheart recently purchased me one for my birthday that I adore made with a Liberty dime from 1856.
 
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Thanks. I have several in my collection where the date indicates it was circa Civil War. I have one, an 1843, $2 1/2 , quarter eagle gold coin that somebody dedicated to his sweetheart. She must have been quite a gal. Since the back was planed down for the initials and the mint mark with it I just hope it was not from the Dahlonega or Charlotte mint.
 
Darn it Anna Elizabeth! I just logged in for a few minutes and now am distracted by a terrific thread and something I've never hear of toboot? ** sigh ** . That's the trouble with this forum. Far too many members who know far too many fascinating aspect of era life, never be able to catch up in 2015 if a person can't make it past 1865.

Thanks so much for this! Must return with more time- threadbare at best but I know what I'll be doing tonight. I've seen these- think there's one around here somewhere. Never knew what it was!
 
Thanks. I have several in my collection where the date indicates it was circa Civil War. I have one, an 1843, $2 1/2 , quarter eagle gold coin that somebody dedicated to his sweetheart. She must have been quite a gal. Since the back was planed down for the initials and the mint mark with it I just hope it was not from the Dahlonega or Charlotte mint.

That must have cost a pretty penny to craft and to 'waste' a coin with that value at that time she must have been a very special lady indeed. It's also less common to have both sides flattened, so you truly have a special token!

Darn it Anna Elizabeth! I just logged in for a few minutes and now am distracted by a terrific thread and something I've never hear of toboot? ** sigh ** . That's the trouble with this forum. Far too many members who know far too many fascinating aspect of era life, never be able to catch up in 2015 if a person can't make it past 1865.

Thanks so much for this! Must return with more time- threadbare at best but I know what I'll be doing tonight. I've seen these- think there's one around here somewhere. Never knew what it was!

LOL! Don't you hate when you get sucked into the forum? I agree, everyone knows something different on the forums, which makes it such an amazing place to continue learning about the era from all different aspects of things. But back to the love tokens - I only discovered them earlier this year when I was researching period jewelry for my historical novel I'm writing. I wanted something unique for my hero to give to my heroine and I wanted it to be personalized. I thought the only thing I could do was the time honored engraved locket , but then I stumbled upon a stick pin love token and was intrigued and did more digging and discovered this whole world of tokens. Everything from the simple engraved Liberty dime to jewel encrusted gold coins with enameling. Happy hunting tonight @JPK Huson 1863
 
Ah HA! I knew we had one of these around here somewhere. My grgrgrandmother Emeline, b. 1856 was given one although no idea what year. Her daughters were born around 1880, I'm guessing they gave this to her? Canadian dimes- cannot read the dates. Emeline's monogram is central, her daughters' on either side.

Really nice thread, been meaning to get back to this. I think we have one or 2 others somewhere. Love tokens must have had a long run in popularity, gee whiz! This one is getting a small shadow box frame- may do a thread on that. Civil War and other jewelry and family treasures in shadow boxes and frames, hanging on the wall make it so, so much easier to enjoy them than only wearing them once in awhile.

Very dusty scanner, 'scuse! ( Yes, scanned it! :tongue: Works! )

emeline live token.jpg

Oh Good Grief it's upsidedown.....
 
Ah HA! I knew we had one of these around here somewhere. My grgrgrandmother Emeline, b. 1856 was given one although no idea what year. Her daughters were born around 1880, I'm guessing they gave this to her? Canadian dimes- cannot read the dates. Emeline's monogram is central, her daughters' on either side.

Really nice thread, been meaning to get back to this. I think we have one or 2 others somewhere. Love tokens must have had a long run in popularity, gee whiz! This one is getting a small shadow box frame- may do a thread on that. Civil War and other jewelry and family treasures in shadow boxes and frames, hanging on the wall make it so, so much easier to enjoy them than only wearing them once in awhile.

Very dusty scanner, 'scuse! ( Yes, scanned it! :tongue: Works! )

View attachment 82820
Oh Good Grief it's upsidedown.....

Glad you found your token! What a lovely piece, very unique with the joining of three tokens together. I agree, it's probably the modern equivalent of a mother's ring or necklace with birthstones of her children that would've been given as a gift for a birthday or some other occasion from her daughters.

Love tokens had quite the run probably becoming most popular here in the U.S. around 1840-ish and running well into the 1890s. Shame you can't read the dates on the coins as it might help date the piece more. I happen to be wearing my love token today, so I snapped two photos - front & back with my iPhone. I've attached them as files to share. I often wonder who owned it before me and what story accompanies it as it is very old. Shame it can't tell me it's story as I bet its interesting.
 

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Good stuff. The practice started in the late 17th Century Britain. Often involved giving tokens to family members who left for the Colonies (Americas or Australia.) Some of those were prisoner tokens for the prisoners shipped down under. Some were used to mark events, like weddings, the birth of a child etc.
 
No way! So original tokens would be prisoner tokens from the UK, from the days when someone could be deported ( some for reasons we think absurd today )? Seems apt, calling them love tokens albeit sad.

Hmm, you know, in my imaginary spare time during the day think I'll look up a range of time our token pin could have originated- the date my grgrandmother married since her monogram seems to use her married name. Maybe? I can have the memory of a goldfish- may pay to look at the whole thing again.

Anna, your token is perfectly lovely, gosh! Thanks for sharing! I've frequently thought what is needed is a ( ahem ) psychic when hitting brick walls in research..... . OH wait, and one for those genealogy mysteries, too! Problem there is admitting you went to one. And believed them. You can see it, slinking down some street wearing dark glasses, paying in cash.. . Would like to say we still have brick walls in our tree. They are 2 decades old though so believe me, tempted! :angel:
 
View attachment 82884 View attachment 82885 Here is a "love token" that I have had in my collection for nearly 50 years. On numerous times I had almost had it engraved with some tiding of love with the idea of giving it to the woman du jour, but I never did. It is made of solid silver, measures 1 5/8" in diameter and is signed by the artist O. Roty and dated 1895.
Interesting it says semper on it as it means always.
 
Over the years I have seen several canes with love tokens inlet into the cane itself or as the top piece.

I've also seen them built into a pocket watch, mantle clock, a nautical compass.

I've never added one to my collection; doesn't feel right to have a personal token of love like that that isn't mine.


I can see that. Digging into History can feel so intrusive. Even this bizarre ' thing ' we see all the time, of saying dreadful things about people not here any more to defend themselves gives me the willies. We can take that further, into say, archeology you know? Yes, terrific to understand how people lived but gee whiz. We poke around in ancient graves for instance- if you did that to someone's grave centuries later, you'd be arrested.

Used a ring illustration from an old book, where not just the ancient ring dug from a grave was used- with the finger bone. Again, willies.
 
Thought I would bump this thread up as it's similar in theme to @JPK Huson 1863's thread on wedding & engagement rings.


Thank you!! I thought about this thread! Seems to me they were often the same thing? It's funny, made me also think of a ' token ' given to me in high school, an 18oo's penny ( can't remember the date ) with 2 holes somehow punched through. Now I wonder if it was originally that, too. Still have it somewhere.
 
Thank you!! I thought about this thread! Seems to me they were often the same thing? It's funny, made me also think of a ' token ' given to me in high school, an 18oo's penny ( can't remember the date ) with 2 holes somehow punched through. Now I wonder if it was originally that, too. Still have it somewhere.
A good number of tribes would use coins with holes as you describe to bind their hair. I wonder if that's what you have.
 
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