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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;lordmarcovan, post: 2583870, member: 10461&quot;]<font face="Georgia"><b>&quot;Died on the Train&quot;: Mourning token inscribed &quot;L. Frank Gray/July 1st 1878&quot; on 1858 Seated Liberty half dollar</b></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><img src="http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k173/lordmarcovan/1858-50c-LFrankGray-07676-coin.png" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><a href="http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k173/lordmarcovan/1858-50c-LFrankGray-07676-obv.png" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k173/lordmarcovan/1858-50c-LFrankGray-07676-obv.png" rel="nofollow">Larger obverse picture</a></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><a href="http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k173/lordmarcovan/1858-50c-LFrankGray-07676-rev.png" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k173/lordmarcovan/1858-50c-LFrankGray-07676-rev.png" rel="nofollow">Larger reverse picture</a></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><b>Host coin:</b> 1858 USA Seated Liberty half dollar.</font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><b>Obverse: </b>original Seated Liberty design, unaltered. </font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><b>Reverse:</b> &quot;July 1st/L. Frank Gray/1878.&quot; inscription, with name in Old English lettering, ornamental border around rim. </font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Georgia">Ex-&quot;10michaelelps951&quot;, eBay, 10/29/2015.</font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Georgia">This love token was only my second purchase towards a new love token/engraved/counterstamped type set endeavor. I was (and still am, as of this post) primarily seeking pictorial love tokens, which this is not. However, the engraving style is nice, and I was intrigued by the presence of a full date (month, day, year) and mostly full name, thinking that might make it possible to discover some of the history behind this piece. </font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Georgia">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 <i>died</i> 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 <i>mourning token!</i></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Georgia">Interestingly, I also found some newspaper obituaries and details on his final resting place online. It doesn&#039;t get any better than this. 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!</font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><a href="http://fultonhistory.com/Newspapers%20Disk3/Syracuse%20NY%20Sunday%20Times%20%20Grayscale/Syracuse%20NY%20Sunday%20Times%20Dec%201877%20-%20Dec%201880%20Grayscale/Syracuse%20NY%20Sunday%20Times%20Dec%201877%20-%20Dec%201880%20-%200115.pdf" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://fultonhistory.com/Newspapers%20Disk3/Syracuse%20NY%20Sunday%20Times%20%20Grayscale/Syracuse%20NY%20Sunday%20Times%20Dec%201877%20-%20Dec%201880%20Grayscale/Syracuse%20NY%20Sunday%20Times%20Dec%201877%20-%20Dec%201880%20-%200115.pdf" rel="nofollow">Syracuse Sunday Times, July 7, 1878</a></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><img src="http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k173/lordmarcovan/LFrankGreyObituarySyracuseSundayTimes-v2.png" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><img src="http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k173/lordmarcovan/LFrankGreyGravestone.png" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&amp;GRid=41249444" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&amp;GRid=41249444" rel="nofollow">The findagrave.com memorial</a> contained a treasure trove of geneaological and historical information, and a picture of Mr. Gray&#039;s tombstone. </font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Georgia">(It seems the researcher has herself now joined him in the hereafter, so I must posthumously thank her.)</font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Georgia">This piece was once part of my <a href="http://forums.collectors.com/messageview.aspx?catid=26&amp;threadid=953536&amp;enterthread=y" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://forums.collectors.com/messageview.aspx?catid=26&amp;threadid=953536&amp;enterthread=y" rel="nofollow">Engraved/Counterstamped/Oddball Type Set</a>.</font>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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