Follow the lead picture post.

(Dime.)

 

Common and circulated, yet wholesome and appealing.

 

More old, wretched flatbed scanner images.

 

Oops, sorry, I flubbed it back there by posting an 1871 dime after that 1872 IHC, didn't I? Got my dates off by a year.

 

"Died on the Train": 1878 mourning token engraved on 1858 Seated Liberty half dollar



Host coin: 1858 USA Seated Liberty half dollar.
Obverse: original Seated Liberty design, unaltered.
Reverse: "July 1st/L. Frank Gray/1878." inscription, with name in Old English lettering, ornamental border around rim.

I had assumed this was a birth/christening gift, but after finalizing the deal with the seller I did some quick web searching, and discovered that an L. Frank Gray in fact died of consumption (tuberculosis) on that day, while traveling on a train. So unless there is some other intersection of the same name and date in history, it would appear that I fortuitously nailed the history of this piece down. It is a mourning token.

Interestingly, I also found some newspaper obituaries and details on his final resting place online. This is one thing that can be amazing about love tokens- you can pin so much more of their history down than you could with a regular coin.

Syracuse Sunday Times, July 7, 1878

 

What, posting coins?

Too much backstory/other stuff? OK. Just the coins, then.

It was a Seated half, though. Hmph.

 

Here's an 1858 (-O) half with no extra stuff.