NEW BOOK: EARLY ENAMELLED COINS AND LOVE TOKENS

 

This past summer, I was contacted by a gentleman from Prince Edward Island, Canada. He introduced himself to me by the name of Gordy McCarville and he said he was an avid book writer. He was currently writing a book on enameled coins and love tokens and found my name through the Love Token Society website. Gordy had admired the photos I had on there with women of the Victorian period wearing love token jewelry. He invited me to be a cowriter and asked me to send him photos for the book, both the period photos and photos of coins in my collection. I was pleased to be of assistance. I asked Gordy if he knew of Richard Burdick and the wonderful collection of coin art on the Newman Numismatic Portal. Gordy then contacted Richard and Len Augsburger of the NNP to obtain more photos for the book.

Gordy's reason for writing the book was that the only book on English enameled coins was lacking, particularly with variety among the coins that were covered. That book, called Little Gems, only showed the author's collection and there were big gaps in coverage. In Gordy's book, twelve additional cowriters were brought on board to present a comprehensive coverage of enameled coins as well as Gordy tracking coins on eBay over the years to supplement. Gordy is a collector of English enameled coins and particularly searches out enameled coins from Prince Edward Island. You may have noticed that there is an extra L in the spelling of enameled in the book's title. In Great Britain, enamelled is the correct spelling. Since Gordy is Canadian, with its affiliation with Great Britain, you will see the British spelling throughout the book.

While I do not think that Gordy is heavily into collecting love tokens, he also wanted to give an update to that resource as well. While Lloyd Entenmann's book is full of written information, the photos are very primitive, with some probably even being photocopies of coins from a Xerox machine or the like. Gordy brought the 21st century into a new book about love tokens with color photography of both the obverses and reverses of the coins that he covered. Gordy's book leans heavily on photos and captions of photos so Lloyd's book still has a place in the market for the in depth writing and research that he compiled.

Combining the two types of collectibles, love tokens and enameled coins, also have some overlap and the two share similarities. Engraving is used to make an enameled coin even if it is only using engraving tools to carve out a recess in which to then fill with enamel. Translucent enamel often has underlying engraving to give added interest and many of the enameled coins can have surface engraving on them as well. Enameled coins fall into two main types (possibly three depending on how you view it). The main type is where the coin's original design has been reproduced in enamel. The other type is when the enamel work is of an entirely different design than what was on the coin. Years ago, The Numismatist featured an exquisite enameled scene of a fox with a rabbit on a Morgan dollar (page 117 of this book). The fox/rabbit was the artistic vision of the enameller and was placed on the obverse of the dollar, replacing Liberty's portrait. Enameled initials obviously deviate from the coin's design, being a second type of enameled coin or even a third type if you like. With this type, enameled coins and love tokens meld together into a very decorative monogramed love token.

For more information on Love Token Society, see:
http://lovetokensociety.com/

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