Love Token Charm Struck on Victorian Silver 5-cent Coin: Initials "AHB" Fine (F12)

Love Token Charm Struck on Victorian Silver 5-cent Coin: Initials "AHB" Fine (F12)

A charming tradition from the Victorian period, the love token was a handmade trinket traded between sweethearts that was made from a smoothed-down coin. The coin would be hand-engraved with initials, or perhaps a name or a date, or, rarely, a picture, and gifted to a lover as a memento. In a time before photography, they were small and deeply personal keepsakes that could be held in the palm, strung on a chain, pinned to a piece of clothing, or dangled from a chatelaine, connecting courting couples across time and space.

Eventually, the love token became appropriate to gift to friends and relatives as well as romantic partners, and it became popular for young girls to accumulate as many as they could to make jewellery that connected them to all of their friends and loved ones.

This love token features an added loop at the top, indicating it was likely worn as a piece of jewellery.