Love Tokens

The altering of coins goes back to the late 1700s or earlier. Love tokens are generally defined as coins on which one side, or sometimes both sides, has been smoothed down and engraved with ornate initials, names, phrases or scenes often with an ornate border. These were often given to young ladies as "tokens of love" by a man who is trying to persuade a woman to marry him. The practice seems to have originated in Great Britain in the early 1800's, and migrated to the United States in the mid- to late-1800's. The Seated Liberty dime of the 1850's - 1880's is by far the most popular host coin, but tokens are known on all denominations of U. S. coins from half cents through twenty-dollar gold pieces as well as numerous world coin denominations.