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.

Collecting Jamestown. Part 19. Riga Schilling found in Cellar

I would have never known about this sliver of a coin had I not been chasing after pieces dug at Jamestown. It is not a rare one and is widely available.

In 1997 the southwest corner of an earthfast building was discovered. It was located outside the east palisade of the 1608 fort extension. The discovery was quite a surprise. No one was expecting to find a mud and stud building along the outside of the fort.

The building was named "The Factory" since the archeological evidence revealed that it served as both a storehouse and a manufactory. Its location also facilitated trade with the Natives without entrance into the fort. The building was measured at 72 x 18 feet with an L-shaped cellar at the north end.

The cellar was excavated in 1998 and 1999. Many coins and over 100 jettons were found!

This sliver of a coin is part of the Jamestown collection.
One just like this was found in a sealed context in the cellar
of The Factory that was covered over in about 1610.

One of the coins was a thin schilling of billon that came from the City of Riga. The piece was dated 1577. Riga was located in Livonia. The city was founded in about 1158 and joined the Hanseatic League in 1282. Hence, it is a piece that was readily available to English mariners involved in North Sea trade routes.

But here is where the story gets more interesting.

This Livonian coin was found in a small hole at the floor level of the cellar in The Factory. The cellar was reached by several steps cut into the orange clay. The steps led to a small landing placed just opposite a brick hearth. A border ware saucer candlestick was also found next to the coin.

And now the question: Was the Riga schilling lost or placed?

Apotropaic pieces were not unusual in the early seventeenth century. For example, an English penny was found at the Flowerdew Plantation in a cellar thought to be a dairy. Another silver piece was placed(?) at the bottom of a posthole in a storage cellar near St. Mary's City. These are odd places to lose a coin, but so odd when you consider the need to protect foodstuffs.

And there is more intrigue at The Factory. Near the Riga schilling, at the foot of the stairs, a broken case bottle was found. It was filled with quartz pebbles. Or was it? The pebbles were scattered beneath the bottle. Another odd find. So odd that William Kelso speculated that the bottle was placed there to protect against witches.

I examined the bottle and pebbles last year. They appear to be citrine stones. Are they magical stones?

And the coin? Is it part of this ensemble? Was it placed there for apotropaic purposes?

Loving the Unloved: Worn Elizabethan Sixpence Pendant

Elizabethan sixpence, holed and smoothed.
This pendant likely repelled witches & demons.

Is it jewelry? Or is it protection?

This piece was once loved. Now unloved: no one wanted it when it was offered for sale.

But at one time ...

... it was worn for a lifetime. It was revered. It was apotropaic.

Sometimes the most fascinating coins are the most used up. Many holed silver pieces have been dug in the fields of England. It was a popular practice to wear crossed pieces to ward off evil. Just like crossing one's self before stepping out, a crossed piece was suspended close to the heart.

Nowadays we worry about sugar, fat, and caffeine. But back then, it was evil. The devil was everywhere and witches were so numerous that they threatened every community. Even nightfall was considered a portent of hell -- full of villains. No one was safe.

In a recent trip to Massachusetts, I observed old shoes and poppets that were found in the wall of seventeenth century houses. And horseshoes? They have been found far from the barnyard in hearths and under thresholds. Sentries, all.

But coins were carried and worn. Back in England, the PAS database has revealed that one out of twenty-five pieces were holed in the Elizabethan era. We have already seen that bent coins were also used to repel evil. Some coins were bent and holed.

The hole on this sixpence has nearly given way, and the piece is but a sliver. Old Church magic never disappeared despite the press of the reformation.

The poppet shown is from Massachusetts. It was found within the walls of an old house. It protected against evil.

So next time you see a holed and worn (or bent) Elizabethan coin, think twice. It could have been used as an amulet. It was loved.

1793 Large Cent made into a Patriotic Token

Here are some thoughts for Memorial Day.

One afternoon many years ago someone decided to make a patriotic token from an old cent. A worn 1793 flowing hair cent was retrieved from a drawer and became a canvas.

This was clearly a left-handed effort. An old screwdriver was taken from the toolbox and used as an engraving tool. And with nearly 150 impressions, a US flag was boldly centered on the reverse and flanked by two stars. The rim was adorned with 45 dentils.

It was not a rush job, just crudely made. The design is engaging and precisely balanced. The flag is shaped with a gentle curvature and supported by a broad base on a hill. The letters are tidy with serifs that reflect a bygone era. Overall, the image draws you in and entices you to study each mark.

The cent was not pierced, so it was probably carried. The design is worn with a decade of fingertips softening the design. The patina has depth – dark in the fields and chocolate where the metal was raised from the marks.

Folk art like this is evocative. I want to know who made it and when. But we will never know. It could be a Civil War piece, as it was probably inspired during a period of nationalism.

Maybe it served as a good luck token. I wonder if it worked. Did the soldier survive the battle?

Some numismatists might see this cent as simply mutilated. Others might give it a glance and move on. “It is just a beat piece with bad art,” some will say.

But I disagree. It is more than that. It takes initiative and vision to produce a token like this one. There was a purpose.

And, it is this human action that makes all the difference. Coins like this are alive. This one has more to say than an unmolested cent of the same type.

This is the kind of coin you keep after the others are sold.

Happy Memorial Day.