Embellished M on US Gold Indian Princess $1 Coin

One of the many intriguing aspects of love tokens is the way the many different jewelers around the world executed the task of engraving even a single initial on a host coin.  With the exception of coins that were made as a pair - cufflinks and earrings for example - each love token is its own unique design.    A 22k yellow gold coin served as the canvas on which a very talented jeweler engraved a decorative background and the letter M.  The end result is a stunning coin which has been set in a 22k yellow gold and diamond bezel with an openable bale.  

The host coin itself, a $1 US Indian Princess coin minted between 1856 & 1889, was itself a coin with interesting and troubled history.  With the advent of the gold rush, the US Mint started producing $1 coins, of which the Indian Princess was the third design.  Following unsatisfactory results with the coining of the Type Two Gold Dollars, further modifications to the designs were deemed necessary. Liberty's head was enlarged, her hair was arranged differently, and the headress was shifted toward a more horizontal plane. The purpose of these changes was to minimize the number of places where recessed areas in the dies opposed each other, allowing metal to flow into the dies more evenly and allowing the coins to become "fully struck."

Pendant details:
- 22k yellow gold $1 Indian Princess Coin
- Bezel/ Bale 22k Yellow Gold
- 43 1mm diamonds
- Approx 0.215 ctw

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Love tokens are antique coins that were planed down on one or both sides and embellished with names, personal messages, images and bon mots.

The exact origin of this practice is up for debate: some numismatists trace the history back to 13th century England and the practice of bending coins. When asking a favorite saint for a favor, coins were bent and pledges were made as a physical token of the pledge made. The practice of engraving coins took off during the late 1600’s through the 1800’s, when coins were engraved with everything from primitive to highly skilled techniques in equal measure.

Typically, the minted words and images were removed from the obverse side of the coin - the front of the coin, or what we call heads when we flip a coin as they are commonly decorated with the bust of a prominent person. In some cases the reverse of the coin was used as the blank canvas for the embellishment, which is why you may see a love token of the same year with a different backside. While both sides of the coin are interesting, using the reverse side makes it difficult to determine the year in which the coins were minted.

Love tokens were executed on practically all denominations of coins in many countries. According to the US Mint, the love token phenomenon caused a shortage of dimes during the peak of the craze. Dimes were not a huge amount of money to throw away, thus their popularity. When other coins were used, the choice of coin communicated social and economic status: gold coins and larger denominations of silver coins were a sign of the givers’ wealth, whereas nickels and pennies were seldom used as they were considered common due to their composition – nickel and copper versus silver or gold.