I recently wrote this short article featuring my favorite love token. I have collected and exhibited love tokens for approximately twenty years. I consider myself fortunate because I have been able to find many that are exceptionally nice. Of all of those, the most interesting love token in my collection is pictured below. First, the host coin is a $2.50 Liberty gold coin. $2.50 gold love tokens are not very difficult to find or considered rare. However, this one being an overlay, a pictorial and enameled definitely separates it from the rest. There are eight separate “overlays” made with several different colored gold parts. The host coin is obviously gold. The color of the bird appears to be an exact match as the host coin – possibly gold removed from another gold coin. A “carved bird” overlay or pictorial is unusual. This one could be a Swift bird that mates for life meaning true love. The three leaves or grape bunches on the branch were made possibly from nuggets and are a slightly different color than the host coin – gold with a slight greenish tint. Gold of this color is often referred to as green gold. Silver can be alloyed with yellow gold to produce the green hue. The very detailed branch and the banner have a slight reddish or pink color that jewelers often refer to as Rose gold. Copper is alloyed with yellow gold to make red or pink gold. The overlay below the banner was made with two components - the gold leaf design with a rose gold “four leaf flower” overlaid on top of the leaf. The name “Cecelia” enameled with “black letters” on the banner leads me to believe that this love token was made to mourn the passing of someone named Cecelia. If so, it would also be classified as a mourning token. One of the joys of collecting love tokens is to exhibit them at local and national coin shows. I have exhibited this love token at numerous ANA and FUN shows throughout the country. Many a morning when I have walked in to clean the exhibit cases before the show opens I have smiled as I approached the cases. Seeing the fingerprint smudges on the glass over this love token told me that it caught many viewer’s eye and they were pointing it out for someone else to see and enjoy.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 04:45:19 +0000
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