Posted 9 years ago
Elisabethan
(284 items)
As you can read on CW, search "love tokens" and read the articel, love tokens are coins that have been smoothed and engraved on one side or both, to express a feeling or to memorialize something or someone. You can see tokens with overlapping initials and later (turn-of-the-century) love tokens that has more linear monogram-style initials.
I recently bought this silver brooch that is made of 9 love tokens joined together. I´m new to love tokens but after searching for information I think brooches are quite rare. The coins are silver coins and from the back side of them I can tell they were made between 1872-1905 as they have the motto of Swedish king Oscar II which in latin is "salus populorum fraternorum" (on the coins written in swedish) that was used during the time when he was also king of Norway and there was a union between Norway and Sweden. After the union was dissolved he had to shange the motto. After searching for information about the coins I can narrow the time down to about 1881 for the larger centercoin and for the smaller coins to before 1895.
I think the two tokens with the initials were made first and are probably the initials of a mother and father and the other ones with names are the childrens names. I´m thinking maybe this was given to a dear mother as a gift at the time the children where leaving the home? Probably this brooch was made somewhere between 1894-1920´s, concidering the dating of the coins, the c-clasp and the tubehinge and the popularity of these love tokens during that time. The full first names on the smaller coins might indicate it was made at the turn of the century.
I put this under "World Coins"/"love tokens" but it shows as US Coins. Sorry about that, don´t know why.
There are two tokens I can´t identify as names, maybe a CW friend has some ideas about what they mean?
Wonderful brooch! You are correct, normally when there are a bunch of names together it is a family piece. I see two with ciphers (initials) and the rest with names. Which are the two you can't identify?
Thankyou :), I think one sais "Kortt' and the other something like "Alejelro"? I have never heard it before so I'm not sure it's names. Kort might be a sirname and Alejelro a place? Or maybe it's Norweigan names I don't know about. Any thoughts on those? Thanks so much Bluboi for your answer.
I think those are names. Given that the coins are Swedish, you may want to Google the name plus Sweden and see if anything similar comes up in a generic search.
very beautiful!!!
Thankyou Bluboi, the thing is that I am swedish and should know them if they where from here :). Thankyou for paying attention to my post.
Thankyou Sean and aghcollect!
They would typically sand down one or both sides of the coin and then engrave into the disc. Silver coins were traditionally used as they were soft metal.
Thank you for great information, I'm enjoying this post, I'm afraid I can't add anything to it, but thanks to all involved.
Thankyou Val, you could be right about nicknames. I've also wondered if maybe Alejelro might be a name of a dear family Pet, like a horse or a dog? Or maybe the name of a boat? Around here in scandinavia I've heard sailors would make love tokens for their loved ones when they where out at sea.
Thanks Peasejean55, I'm glad you like the post :).
Thanks also for love Mikelv85 and Vetraio50!
Thankyou blunderbuss2!
Trey, surfdub66 and Sergey thankyou!
Thanks Manikin!
Thanks Kivatinitz!
Thanks Trunkman!
Thanks Sean!
Thankyou Lisa, sarahoff and Manikin!
Roycroftbooksfromme1 thankyou!
Thankyou Aura!
Thankyou SpiritBear!