Vintage $1 Type III Gold Love Token

Please see photos for more details regarding the condition of the token.

Love tokens, as opposed to the more general term, “tokens of love,” are literally coins that have been smoothed and engraved on at least one side, sometimes both, to express a sentiment or memorialize an event. During the Victorian era, these tokens were tangible emotions you could carry with you everywhere you went—or even wear as jewelry.

The origins of love tokens might be traced back to medieval French treizains, or coins that were carved specially for a marriage. During the wedding, a Catholic priest would bless the treizains, which featured symbols of love and union such as double flaming hearts and handshakes. After being blessed, the coins were accepted by merchants as legitimate currency. Treizains evolved into modern marriage medals.

Love tokens were even more popular with the British, whose citizens had a long tradition of taking a coin out of circulation and keeping it as a good-luck charm. Typically, a man would bend the edges of a coin on opposing sides in opposite directions, so it would be easy to distinguish from the other coins in his pocket—for this reason, these coins were known as “benders.” If he gifted anyone his lucky bender, it was probably for sentimental reasons.

During the late 1600s and 1700s, the British began to sand and embellish coppers coins to mark births, deaths, marriages, and anniversaries. An early technique known as pinpunching created a design made of tiny dots hammered into the coin with a pin. A bit later, these coins were actually engraved with designs and lettering employing a smooth-line technique similar to that used on scrimshaws. These early “engraved coins” were most often made on half pennies, pennies, and two pence.

In the United States, the love-token tradition began during the Civil War (1861-1865), when soldiers would engrave coins either to carry as dog tags or to send as gifts to their sweethearts back home. After the war, Americans were devastated by the loss of lives and saw time with their family and friends as precious and short. In England, Queen Victoria openly adored her husband, Prince Albert, and when he passed away in 1861, she publicly mourned his death. She made it fashionable for the British and Americans to outwardly express their emotions, particularly with jewelry and trinkets.

Due to the uniqueness of each item, please refer to the photos provided in this auction. We offer high resolution images of each item rather than a written description of condition.

This item is being shipped from the Pristine Auction warehouse.