The Collaborative "Virtual 7070" Type Set Project

Good morning. It is Monday the 16th. Today we move on to our next type, which is the...

Liberty Seated Dime, Legend obverse (1860-91).

Here is the one in my primary collection. It has never been to CAC on my watch. (I've never made a CAC submission on any of my US coins.)

 

I hope y'all will find this post interesting, and not a digression from the main theme.

Back around 2008, I avidly collected love tokens done on dimes. These are just some of the ones on post-1860 Legend Obverse Seated dimes. By no means all of the ones I had. This was back in my flatbed scanner imaging era, so the pics aren't the greatest.

1862 - "RWS" - all three of my initials in the proper sequence, plus a marsh scene (I live in the Marshes of Glynn in GA). I couldn't pull the BIN trigger on this one fast enough, when I saw it on eBay. Also, that morning, a stork had flown across the road in front of me on my commute. An omen, perhaps.



1863 - Clothing stud mount. An ugly piece, but on a better-date host coin. Definitely scarce as a love token.



1872 - "JWD" with geometric design and stork in well-executed marsh scene with flying birds in sky. I surmise all these storks on love tokens denoted baby christening gifts.



1873 arrows - Pictorial of a single masted schooner sailing left in seascape with waves and birds. Relatively simple artwork. Though I would have paid a premium for it as a pictorial, it wasn't that expensive, as I recall.



1875 (example #1) - "Will" and two-masted schooner sailing right over textured waves. While the obverse and reverse were toned differently, the difference was not as pronounced as it is in these poor scans. (All of these were imaged in my flatbed scanner era.)



1875 (example #2) -Victorian firefighter's hose carriage, name (undecipherable) engraved below




1876 (example #1) - "Papa" in fancy script below landscape with church scene. A very nice scenic pictorial, despite some wear. I was lucky enough to pick it up quite cheaply, too. This 1876 "Papa" piece pairs nicely with the 1887 "Mama" Statue of Liberty pictorial below.



1876 (example #2)- "OVER THE GARDEN WALL / " R (G?) E. C.", (fox? cat?) leaping over stone wall in pursuit of another animal whose tail can be seen, dog chasing bird below. A great pictorial piece.



1876 (example #3) -Victorian "penny-farthing" (high wheel) bicycle in landscape with foliage and cattail plant in foreground, bird in sky.



1877 - "ELB" in inverted horseshoe, with flourishes and border. These "horseshoe" pieces were almost certainly used as "good luck" talismans.



1879 - Key date. Rare; exceedingly so as a love token. "A" and "J" in monogram with ornamental border. This not only had a high grade host coin, but is likely one of only a tiny handful of surviving love tokens on 1879 dimes. Unfortunately I never got good photos of this piece, so we'll have to rely on low-quality scans.



1880 (example 1) - Key date. Rare, especially as a love token. "C", "I" (or "J"), & "L" in monogram with ornamental border.
I cherrypicked this piece in a bulk lot for only $7.50! Not long before that, I had bought a different one (below) for about $125.00. I resold the $125.00 example at cost, and kept the lucky cherrypick. Apparently the owner of the source bulk lot of dime love tokens didn't think to check it for key date coins!



1880 (example 2) - Another key date 1880 dime. This is the one I had paid $125.00 for. The one above was the one I cherrypicked for only $7.50. I kept the cherrypicked one and resold this one at cost, later.



1881 - Key date. Rare, especially as a love token. "A", "H", and "W" in monogram, with flourishes. While the key date 1879, 1880 and 1881 dimes had relatively tiny mintages and were struck only at Philadelphia, it was the "golden age" of love token engraving, which lasted from about the mid-1870s until the end of the century. As such, a fair number of these key-date coins got made into love tokens, unlike the earlier key dates from the 1840s. However, when you're talking about such a tiny mintage like the 24,000 struck in 1881, that's not a very big number to begin with. I was fortunate to add an 1881 to the collection.



1882 -"E" and "L" through "C" in small monogram, below horse's head.



1883 (example 1) - "PETE" on fence, with chick hatching from egg below. This was a superb pictorial, and one of my more admired pieces. Like the "stork" pictorials, this "chick and egg" theme was almost certainly engraved as a christening gift.



1883 (example 2)- "Charley" in script above ornamental diagonal band, landscape with sunrise behind a mountain lake.



1884 - "J.J.T." above river scene with boats and the Brooklyn Bridge. A nice companion to the 1887 "Statue of Liberty" piece below. Both this and the coin below date within a year of the dedication of the New York City landmarks they portray.



1885 - "WJH" in banner across inverted horseshoe. Another "lucky horseshoe" piece.



Continued in next post...

 

1886 -"P. L." below lighthouse and seascape, with partial ornamental border and scroll above. I have a pet theory that the incredibly intricate engraving here was done in advance by one craftsman, then the initials were added later (perhaps at a fair or similar venue) by a less-competent engraver. Note the spur projecting from the curve of the "P", which appears to have been the result of a slipped tool. Contrast that seemingly sloppy work with the exquisite craftsmanship on the rest of the engraving.



1887 - "MA-MA" with Statue of Liberty scene and rope border. Like the "Brooklyn Bridge" piece above, the host coin dates to within a year of the opening of the New York City landmark. Though the work is simple, it is effective, making this topical love token a very special pictorial. In addition to being one of a pair of "NYC landmark" pieces I had, this 1887 "Mama" could also be paired with the 1876 "Papa" church scenic above. Ex-Heritage Long Beach Tokens & Medals Auction #110, Lot 29116, 09/2008.



1888 - "Ivy De" or "Joy De"(?) in script, with parachute (!) and ornamental border. Initially I was surprised to see a parachute shown on a love token whose host coin was struck 15 years before the Wright Brother's first airplane flight, but it turns out parachutes have a much longer history than powered aircraft, and date back at least as far as the Renaissance. It's uncertain what is dangling from this one, but it looks like it could be a little stick-figure man hanging on for dear life!



1890 (example 1) - "Jennie" in cursive script above ornamental diagonal band, sunburst above, seascape/beach scene with curiously slanted buildings, sailboat, and birds below. Note this coin's amazingly similar "twin" below, which came to light unexpectedly.



1890 (example 2) - NOT MY COIN. Note the eerie similarities between this coin and my example above! Same design, same name, but obviously different engravers at work. This bizarre coincidental "twin" to my piece was posted on the Collectors Universe forums by CU member "abitofthisabitofthat" when I posted the one above. From the looks of it, his was done by a more skilled artisan than my example was.

 

Here's one last love token before I cease that little diversion. I overlooked this one yesterday, when were still doing the 1853-55 Arrows at Date dimes.

This was an interesting pictorial depicting 19th century tinsmithing tools. I called it "Ten Cents for the Tinsmith".

This interesting piece was rather modestly priced for a pictorial love token, and I suspect I only got to it because it was listed only in the eBay Seated dimes category. Had the seller also listed it under the love token category, somebody else would have probably snapped it up first.






OK, I'm done with the love token dimes for now. Resume normal business.