"Where's the Fire?": pictorial love token on 1875 Seated Liberty dime

"Where's the Fire?": pictorial love token on 1875 Seated Liberty dime



Larger obverse picture
Larger reverse picture

Host coin: 1875 USA Seated Liberty dime.
Obverse: original Seated Liberty design, unaltered.
Reverse: Victorian firefighter's hose carriage, name (undecipherable) engraved below.

Ex- "whitewolfcoins", eBay, 06/27/2017.

This is another special pictorial love token. It depicts a fireman's hose reel carriage of the period. The carriage shown (which I believe might have been pulled by men rather than horses) is contemporary to the host coin. It is apparent that the onetime recipient and owner of this love token was a fireman, though unfortunately his name, seen in fancy script beneath the carriage, received a bit too much pocket wear to be readable today. The rest of the piece has stood up well, however. It is likely that our Victorian fireman carried this coin on his watch chain.

I bought this within a week of buying another nice pictorial with a Victorian bicycle on it, from the same seller, for the same price. These were both exceptional pieces, and I didn't mind paying strong money for them. ("Strong money" for a love token is relative - still only a two-figure price tag in this case, as both pieces cost less than $100 each - if only just.)

Below is an image of a fire hose reel wagon of this era. Note the similarities to the one on the coin. It was originally published in The Popular Science Monthly in 1895.


(I reversed the orientation of the original image to make the carriage face right, like the one on the coin.)
Image source 1: Wikimedia Commons
Image source 2: The Popular Science Monthly, Vol. XLVII, via archive.org

 

Old thread resurrection, just… because.