Loving the Unloved: Primitive Large Cent Love Token OR ?

Love tokens are romantic. Or, at least they are supposed to be.

But every engraved coin is not a love token -- some are pendants, some amulets, others tags of some sort, and some are just a dalliance. Yet each of them marks a moment in time, a focused effort to produce something meaningful.

This is why we are fascinated. And the questions, there are many: who made it, when did they do it, and what was their intent? What sort of person carves their initials in a worn large cent thereby gaining an anonymous immortality?

A pendant? A tag?
As crudely done as it appears, some effort was taken
to include serifs and reposition the t-bar.

The WT inscription is crudely done -- a chisel or nail perhaps? But is was not hurried. The letters were embellished with bold serifs. The W slants and is irregular. The t-bar was corrected to align. The whole effect is pleasing.

It was holed for suspension.

Coins like this are not rare, yet each one is unique. There is a story here, but we cannot know it. And, unlike hundreds of other worn large cents that are perfectly worn and unmarked, this one is special because it has been marked. It is mysterious as such.

But it is unloved.

It was described as a "love token" when I found it listed. But what is it really? Every engraved coin is not about love or sweethearts.

I find it odd that coins with initials are ranked below those with counter-stamps. The most popular counter-stamps are those that have been attributed: a butcher here, a druggist there. Folks like to read about the business -- maybe get an old newspaper ad that has an image of the storefront.

For me, I find the mystery of a person just as interesting than a butcher or druggist who pounds his logo on every old cent that passes through the till. Don't get me wrong, I like counter-stamps too. But I don't get that excited about butchers -- although I do enjoy a nice steak now and then.

Old WT had an idea. He took and hour or two to fashion this cent into something that was on his mind. He worked at it with whatever tool was on hand. He used it, and now, many years later, here it is. He has turned to dust, yet his creation remains.

If you believe in contagion magic, then something of WT is animated within the rims of this old cent. The necromancer can feel it.