Ruth's Blog

Numismatics is the scientific study of currency.  Where coinage is used other than as a means of exchange this is often termed “paranumismatics”.  One branch of paranumismatics is the study of tokens although this is misleading as many tokens had a monetary value.  Some tokens may be mementoes or keepsakes – when coins are engraved with affectionate messages.  In the British Isles there are three well known sub-sets: Love tokens; Prison tokens; Transportation tokens – often closely connected.

Here are two token/keepsakes both associated with the Lincolnshire town of Louth.  Both appear to have been hand engraved on cartwheel pennies of 1797.  One is engraved on the obverse of the penny and the other on the reverse.  As the maker had first to grind flat the penny, he (or she) would choose the most worn side for the work.

Both name Louth and are dated 1831 and 1832.  The first may be termed a Prison token (since it names “Louth Prison”).  It is unlikely to be a transportation token as a prisoner awaiting transportation would probably have been held at Lincoln.  The second may be a Love token.  Conjecturally, the first was engraved by the individual named – one “RJ” presumably a man imprisoned in Louth.  The second provides a message of love towards, one assumes, a woman “A. North”.  Are they the work of the same engraver?  The answer seems to be “very probably”.  The script is similar.  There are few obvious differences in the lettering or numbering (one such is the two distinct presentations of “8”).  The use of decoration is similar, as is the device of two pellets as a punctation mark.  Note the double striations used in the etching of some capital letters such as L.

There are two possible explanations.  First the romantic one.  Did one RJ, serving a sentence in Louth prison during 1831-32, have a sweetheart, perhaps Ann North?  It is not altogether surprising that her Christian name is not engraved.  The Victorians were not always accustomed to using first names.  Another reason might be simply the lack of space to spell out a longer name such as “Arabella” in the field of the coin.  On his release did RJ eventually marry a Miss North and present her with a love token?  One hopes so.

Another explanation is actually more likely.  Both are the work of a third person - an itinerant craftsman making a living in and around Louth in the early 1830s by producing engraved coins as keepsakes.  That he may have been allowed into Louth prison in March 1831 to get a commission seems unlikely but is possible.  The following year he engraved a coin in the form of a love token for a person called A North but we cannot begin to guess who paid him to do so.