Love tokens are generally defined as coins where one side (or sometimes both sides) has been smoothed down and engraved with initials, names, phrases and/or scenes. These were often given to young ladies as “tokens of love” by suitors.

The manufacture and practice of giving “Love Tokens” seems to have originated in Great Britain in the early 1800’s, and then migrated to the United States in the mid- to late-1800’s.

The Liberty Seated dime is perhaps the most popular used to create love tokens, perhaps because of its smaller size and silver content, but love tokens are known to have been made from all denominations of U. S. coins from half cents through twenty-dollar gold pieces as well as numerous world coins and denominations.

Love Token enthusiasts have formed appropriately enough “The Love Token Society”. It is an international organization and can be found on the web at http://www.lovetokensociety.org

The standard reference work on love tokens is
“Love Tokens as Engraved Coins” by Lloyd L. Entenmann, privately published, 1991. You may have to search a bit to find a copy but they are available.

Coin World also published an article on Love Tokens a few years back. Read Article here 

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