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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;lordmarcovan, post: 3644770, member: 10461&quot;]So it looks like I&#039;ll be doing another side collection of love tokens again. I keep building these, then selling them off to feed my primary &quot;Eclectic Box&quot; collection... but then I find myself drawn again to the quirky folk art or interesting provenance on some love token. I still browse that eBay category pretty regularly. I guess they&#039;ve kind of gotten in my blood- and stayed there.</p><p><br /></p><p>I saw this one for sale a couple of years ago but didn&#039;t have the money. Lo and behold, it reappeared on eBay again recently, and I bid around spot price, and won. I&#039;m happy, because pictorial love tokens on gold host coins are rare.</p><p><br /></p><p>The artistry on this one is not sublime, but it has a folksy charm to it. Given the &quot;hatching chick&quot; motif, it was almost certainly a christening token, and I would wager that &quot;E. F. D.&quot;, whoever he or she was, was likely born in 1868. We&#039;ll never know, of course, but these pieces always present some fun little mysteries like that. And sometimes the mysteries can be <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/vesta-mccurrys-ww1-love-token-coin-is-going-home.329215/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/vesta-mccurrys-ww1-love-token-coin-is-going-home.329215/">solved</a>, and the coin gives up its fascinating backstory.</p><p><br /></p><p>That won&#039;t happen here, with just a set of initials to go on, but it&#039;s a pictorial carving on a mid-19th century gold coin, which in itself makes it worth having.</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://us.v-cdn.net/6027503/uploads/editor/ur/lp5islsdkov4.png" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://us.v-cdn.net/6027503/uploads/editor/ur/lp5islsdkov4.png" rel="nofollow"><img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6027503/uploads/editor/ur/lp5islsdkov4.png" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://us.v-cdn.net/6027503/uploads/editor/ev/7ir90waaq9ls.png" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://us.v-cdn.net/6027503/uploads/editor/ev/7ir90waaq9ls.png" rel="nofollow"><img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6027503/uploads/editor/ev/7ir90waaq9ls.png" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>What drew me back into love tokens was the recent <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/i-got-an-interesting-private-message-on-collectors-universe-last-week.342499/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/i-got-an-interesting-private-message-on-collectors-universe-last-week.342499/">surprise gift</a> of this piece, done on a 1798/7 16-stars dime!</p><p><br /></p><p>This one&#039;s not about the engraving (though that&#039;s competent enough), or the backstory, but the fact that it&#039;s on a rare host coin. This is the only 18th century US silver coin I have ever owned, or am likely to own, and as of this typing, I believe the VG price of such a coin (were it undamaged) would be in the neighborhood of $1,300-1,400. My kind partner in the deal sold it to me for <i>one dollar!</i> So that really counts as a generous gift.</p><p><br /></p><p>The date is attributable by the fact that it has the 16-stars Heraldic Eagle reverse, which was only used on the 1798/7 dime.</p><p><br /></p><p>I need to take better pictures of it.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6027503/uploads/editor/nw/j376idggcnqo.png" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6027503/uploads/editor/gh/sinnry1meale.png" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Back to the &quot;hatching chick&quot; motif again, for a moment. It is not an uncommon theme on 19th century christening tokens, though I&#039;ve seen more with a &quot;stork&quot; motif.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s one on an 1883 dime I used to have. The engraving here is top-notch. Wish I still had this piece.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6027503/uploads/editor/jo/5gtvzesbs4la.png" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s the more typical &quot;stork&quot;. I no longer have this piece, either.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6027503/uploads/editor/7d/qlledjenmc0m.png" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>And here is another, with more folksy and less professional engraving, but special, because it has all three of my initials, in the proper sequence! That&#039;s a pretty rare coincidence!</p><p><br /></p><p>It features a stork in a marsh scene. My daily commute takes me through Georgia&#039;s Marshes of Glynn, and on the morning I bought that coin, a stork flew across the road in front of my car. When I later sold that collection of love tokens, I held that piece back, and gave it to my mother. She has a charm bracelet of love tokens with her children and grandchildren&#039;s names on the coins. So this one, while no longer in my personal collection, is still in the family.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6027503/uploads/editor/sl/cjcxf3eo6m2q.png" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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