100949 | UNITED STATES. Owl and Stars/E–F silver Love Token.

100949 | UNITED STATES. Owl and Stars/E–F silver Love Token. Engraved on an 1888 Seated Liberty Dime (18mm, 1.70 g, 12h).

 

Owl standing slightly right, head facing; three stars around; all within crescent-shaped border decorated with scrollwork and rectangular banner with "E. F." / UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Liberty seated right, head left, holding Phrygian cap on pole and resting hand upon union shield. Edge: Reeded.

 

Cf. KM A92 (for host coin). Engraving & host coin: Choice Extremely Fine. Deeply toned, with some underlying brilliance.

 

Animals can be one of the more endearing forms of iconography applied to love tokens, with owls among the most popular. This example presents an owl with rather large eyes, the nocturnal aspect being conveyed through the stars surrounding it.

 

Being borrowed from the early 18th century practice in Great Britain, and being related to even earlier forms of engraving on European coinage, "love tokens" were an extremely popular form of sentimental art that saw their high point in the United States in the mid-to-late-19th century, whereby coinage was smoothed down on one or both sides, and some form of initials, a message, and/or imagery was engraved so that it may be presented to a loved one. The most commonly encountered 'canvas' in the United States was the dime, and usually one from the Seated Liberty series. At their height, the U.S. Mint blamed an alleged shortage of dimes—a staple of most late-19th century transactions—on this craze. Rising again in the early-mid 20th century during the depths of despair that were the world wars, this form of coin art, usually referred to in this context as "trench art," would see another revival, offering soldiers a brief chance at escapism through sentimental creativity.

 

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