Hi friends! I’m so excited to welcome  back author, Heather Moll to Austenesque Reviews today! ✨

And you know what that means! Time to learn more about Regency and Georgian jewelry. 💍

In the past, Heather has shared about toi et moi rings, memorial rings, acrostic rings, and lover’s eyes. 💎

And today, Heather is here to share about a different type of love token which is featured in her new novel – Her Affections and Wishes! 🪙

We hope you enjoy! ☺️

 

Thank you for the warm welcome to talk about Her Affections and Wishes! Some of you know I put apiece of jewelry into my books. Sometimes they’re plot points and sometimes they’re romantic gifts. Years ago, my editor found a picture of a Georgian-era coin with one side smoothed and a love poem engraved on the other. It had a bail to turn it into a pendant. She said, “Can you put this in a book?”

It turns out, these love tokens were popular through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. So, of course I had to put it in a book! And when I started plotting Her Affections and Wishes and needed jewelry, it’s time had finally come.

Love tokens are legal coins that have been smoothed on one or both sides and then engraved. They’ve existed in Britain since the Roman period. The engravings typically include initials, names, dates, or more intricate designs such as sayings or pictures. These pieces were the sort of deeply personal and sentimental behavior typical of the Georgians.

Although initials or dates were most common, short poems or romantic lines or drawings were also chosen. They could be simple tokens made on impulse by a vendor at a fair for one’s sweetheart, or more elaborately engraved by a jeweler. You’ll have to read Her Affections and Wishes to see how the one Darcy gets for Elizabeth is made.

Be warned, these examples won’t be as sparkly as other jewelry you’ve seen from me.

This inscription on a holed George III halfpenny reads “Dear Mary When this you see think of me when I am far away T G”

This coin was smoothed and engraved on both sides. The obverse says, “No heart so true as mine to you” around a flaming heart pierced diagonally by two arrows. The reverse says “Sweet the love that meets return” around two kissing doves.

This token one with a damaged hole says “My heart never will be at Ease Till our hearts and hands be joind like these” above two overlapping hearts and two clasped hands. The obverse says “Health & Love S A” above a hand and a heart.

Love tokens didn’t have to be worn. They could have been kept whole and carried close. Sometimes, as a gesture of fidelity, a man might bend an unengraved or an engraved coin into a crooked coin. Now the coin is bent into an S-shape and cannot be used, further demonstrating his devotion and becomes an amulet one carries with them. This silver sixpence of George II, dated 1758, has been bent into the shape of an S.

In Her Affections and Wishes, Darcy took a coin Elizabeth gave him at the Epsom races and had it bent into a token and had another coin engraved and set to be worn as a necklace for her.

“I have something for you. I forgot to give it to you yesterday after your accident. If my asking you to marry me is not proof enough, perhaps this will persuade you that my attraction and love for you is steadfast and of a long duration.”

He handed her a half-crown, with its obverse smoothed and with a hole through it, hanging on a silver chain.

She ran a finger across it as it dangled from his hand. “Was this the half-crown I gave you as payment for my gaming debts?”

“No, I put that specific coin to better use and had it made into something for me.” He drew out that coin that the silversmith bent into a gentle s-shaped curve. “You did not give it to me as a symbol, but I took it as one.”

“You made a love token out of it?” she said with a soft smile. “But now you cannot spend it.”

“That is the point. It proves that I would rather have you than money, a vow to value you above anything else. Besides,” he continued, “I can afford to deface some coins and pay someone to do it because I won at the races yesterday. Octavius won by half a neck and I won thirty guineas at the Derby, and do you know why?”

“You know horses and are skilled at calculating odds?”

He laughed. “No, the jockey wore green, and that is the colour you chose on Tuesday. I told you it was a sound method. Mr Travers ought to adopt it.”

“A fine strategy,” she said with a laugh. “Now you are a rich man.”

Darcy shook his head. “I am richer this week because I have you in my life, not because of any wagers.”

He put the bent token back into his pocket and held out the coin on the chain to her. She took it and turned it over. Most love tokens had the couple’s initials, or the date of a wedding. The half-crown was large enough for a longer inscription, and Elizabeth read it aloud.

You’ll have to read the book to see that Darcy chose to engrave on his love token for Elizabeth. A half-crown is a large coin—he’s pretty romantic.

The fad died out over the Victorian era as silver was perceived as cheap compared to gold, and photography’s widespread use meant you could just carry a loved one’s image.

What do you think of these portable and personal reminders of affection? Would you deface a coin to demonstrate your devotion?

I love the idea of Mr. Darcy making a sentimental treasure for himself! 🪙 

And I love that he had something made for Elizabeth too and that it is romantic… 💕

All images are from the British Museum

https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/blog/valentines-love-tokens-from-bent-coins-to-whales-tooth/

https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/love-tokens-where-cold-hard-cash-and-romance-meet

https://www.perfectlittleparcel.com/post/victorian-love-tokens

© The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.

 

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~ GIVEAWAY TIME!!! ~

In conjunction with her blog tour, Heather brings with her a lovely prize pack to give away to one lucky winner!!

• a paperback copy of the book Her Affections and Wishes
• some snazzy bookish pencils
• a love token they can give to someone just like Darcy gave to Elizabeth that reads “Always know how much I love you.”

To enter this giveaway leave a comment, a question, or some love for Heather below!

• This giveaway is open worldwide.  Thank you, Heather!
• This giveaway ends September 18th!