Hand Engraved & Enameled HN/ NH on US Gold Liberty Half Eagle $5 Coin

Designed by the U.S. Mint’s chief engraver Christian Gobrecht in 1839, the $5 Liberty Gold Half Eagle is one of the most highly sought after coins on the market today, and one which is seldom seen as a host coin for a love token.  Liberty Head $5 half eagles are a historic example of the high quality output of the U.S. Mint over its illustrious history.

This example here, a beautiful NH/HN surrounded by swirl embellishments on an 1888 $5 US Liberty coin minted in 1888.  Enamel love tokens are hard to come by, this one being only one of only three of the thousands of love tokens in our collection.  

Pendant details:
- 22k yellow gold $5 Liberty Half Eagle Coin
- Bezel/ Bale 22k Yellow Gold
- 53 1mm diamonds
- Approx 0.265 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.