Why did people put holes in coins?

I just got a few coins out of a great uncles safe deposit box and two of the more interesting coins are holed, such as this US 1808 Half.

Why did people hole coins? Was it to take some silver? Or was it to string on a chain and wear?

There are definitely a lot of holed coins out there in the world, but why did this happen and why don't people do it today?

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

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I have several but these are a few:
1) To wear around the neck
2) Concealed coins on string in someone's jacket.
3) Ancient boredom.

 

Usually worn as a necklace.

 

String or thin leather cord or maybe a thin wire to prevent loss. The frontier was continually being pushed West and it was rugged and dangerous. Depending on your social strata, 50 cents was a hefty chunk of moola back in 1808 and no one wanted to lose a half dollar, much less the entire loop while fording a river or riding a horse.

Edit to add: The average wage for unskilled labor was $1.00 per day in the 1808 time period. Manufacturing using women and children averaged 44 cents.
@SensibleSal66

 

I learned of this type of practice done here in New England with all that nice coinage floating around and some of the more remote settlers of my area.
Wallets were for the wealthier and coins often left their pockets and into mine as a Metal Detectorist.... LOL.
Also, to prevent pick pockets.

 

Maybe that's why I use to find more darn Large cents than Silver coins. Oh boy. Maybe I should have tried wealthier areas? Wait! what's the theme? Oh yeah! Holes.

 

@lordmarcovan might have ideas regarding holes in coins.

 

Sentimental reasons only. Coin collecting is not one of them.
Well .. that may not be an exact statement. Sentimental subject.
It's the ones that show an attempt you must worry about.

 

Yep many years ago, people loved wearing their bling, whether it blinged or not!

 

I believe the primary function of holes in coins is to more easily attach them to a hat and look super cool.

 

Many half and large cents have Center holes because they were used as washers.

 

In addition to using them as jewelry, coins were also holed to make them into tool parts.

In medieval England, it was believed that if one wore a King James I (early 1600s to mid 1620s) gold sovereign around their neck that it would ward off the plague. Such coins are available today. It’s an interesting story, but they still sell at deep discounts.

 

I don't know about Canada, but coal and gold mines in the US had a necklace with a coin, or just blank round with a number stamped into it. Each number was different and assigned to a specific person or the number of miners on that shift. At the end of the shift, all the numbers would be turned back in to ensure that all that went in came out as well. If there was a mine collapse, the company would know how many were still down under. I've found a few of those that you can tell were worn around the neck because of the extensive wear in the hole.

 

In ancient times coins were often holed and nailed to a door frame to indicate political leanings. In recent times (last 300 years) most often to adorn a loved ones neck. For most of our history were were a much thriftier society and jewelry was most often left to the very wealthy.

 

Many jewelry holed capped bust half dollars. I imagine you had to be wealthy to wear one in the early 1800s because a half dollar was a lot of money.

 

If it is a square hole, it was probably mounted by a nail to a doorway in a home for good luck. In olden days nails were made square.

 

There’s the story of a barn in upstate New York where there a date set Indian cents, each one nailed to a door. Too bad they didn’t have coin albums in those days.

 

This sent me off to Google.

Searching for barn door indian cents turned up nothing relevant.

Searching for barn door indian head pennies turned up this gem of numismatic scholarship:



I was about to say "that's garbage from start to finish", but the very last line is in fact 100% accurate.

 

To get to the other side,

 

The “barn door” Indian Cents has nothing to do with the closed and open 3 varieties of the 1873 cent. It has to do with a find, which cropped in the 1960s which was undoubtedly disbursed long ago.