Featured Can you decipher this unusual love token and the meaning?

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I give up, just going to take a guess.
the writing suggests someone well trained in handwriting, specifically Victorian font. and that it was likely carved both at the same time by the same person. it's too similar for it to have been done on different occasions or by different people maybe a son or something memorializing their father, and a wife by maiden name that died young, grieving over the loss of his wife and remembering his father that died 12 years earlier while he's at it? I can guess, as to why this would be done, by what it is and what it appears like.

Definitely it's a memorial coin, it's only 12 years difference between the deaths, 25 years of age between the two names though, and unrelated names. the most likely scenario is it's someone father, and maybe a wife (abbreviated first name to E. could be a woman for that reason, could also be a long name like
Elizabeth Nicholson and didn't even try to make it fit on there. The different last name suggests a maiden name as a possibility also which a grieving husband might do rather than memorialize his wife with his last name and choose to remember the girl he met instead.....

Hard to say. maybe some dudes father dies when he's 18, he meets his love and marries her and is happy and at age 30 she dies, and he starts working on this memorial token, and puts both of them on it, her by maiden name and his father by his own surname to make the family connection and cope with his loss. Maybe he rushed it to smooth it down, but he certainly didn't rush the lettering that's for sure, it's a steady hand for the most part.

 

my theory on that is he did the center name first, and then added the one to the top as he went on with it since it was available space and he was dwelling on loss. maybe planned for the one name only at first, and got to thinking and added the one to the top and MAYYYYBE intended to put his mother on the bottom at some future point, but then he dies before she does??? It's an interesting coin. I'm enjoying the speculating!

 

In regards to the weight, it's not going to go from 12 grams to 9 grams, only in the most drastic circumstances. I don't know what coin it is, but the weight Stevearino posted (9.63) is the area I am in agreement with.

 

I went to Family Search and guess what I found: John Topliff was buried on Dec. 12, 1819 [which would be about right on if this man had died on Dec. 9] in Sculcoates All Saints, Yorkshire, England, UK.

Going back to look for E. Nicholson. Dang, this is fun!

Steve

 

I found an E. Nicholson who died in Middlesex (near London) who was buried on March 27, 1831. This was just over 3 months after the E. Nicholson on the coin died. Now, IF it is the same person, I do know that some burials in Minnesota were delayed in the winter because of snow and frozen ground, but I have no idea if that was the case in England.

Steve

 

My thoughts exactly. Time frame sounds right. I love these coin mysteries.

 

WOW! You guys have done more than I could have asked for! Thanks @lordmarcovan for the original Latin insight on the inscription and thank you @Stevearino for finding the name in family search. It's interesting to consider the connection of the 2 names, albeit partial on the 2nd name. I wish I knew the connection of who had the token made and for what purpose outside of memorializing the departed.

 

Great stories!!

 

The host coin is definitely Norway 1/3 speciedaler KM 266. 266 and 273 are the only coins close to that weight that also have that obv legend, and the positioning of the legend is different on 273. 273 does not have the wide gap between Christian and Rex

 

I wonder what the relationship was of these two men. They may only have importance to the person that had the piece engraved and may not have even known each other.

 

I'm make a really wild guess here, but, assuming E. Nicholson is a male, I'd guess this is father & father-in-law. I don't think E. Nicholson is John Topliff's wife, as a Mary is listed as his wife, I believe.

Steve