Love Token, Half of a George III Sixpence Piece

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

51258

Title

Love Token, Half of a George III Sixpence Piece

Description

One silver George III sixpence from 1820 deliberately cut in half as a love token. The coin has the profile of the King facing to the viewer's right on the obverse, and royal coat of arms on the reverse. It has a clean cut along a diagonal.

Date

1820

Location

Museums Collection Centre

Copyright

The City of Edinburgh Council Museums & Galleries

The coin was the lowest denomination of pre-decimal currency made of silver and was first minted in England in 1551 and remained in circulation until 1980.

There are two possible reasons that the coin is cut in half. The practise of coin debasement was widespread during the early nineteenth century. People would chip off the edges of coins, all be it in very small amounts so it wouldn’t be noticeable and continue to spend the rest of the coin. In this way one could essentially use the coin twice. They could gather enough spare silver or even gold to melt down and spend. The coin was most likely used as a love token, the coin would have been cut in half by a couple and they would have kept a half each.

People used silver sixpence coins as love tokens because they understood them to have special powers. They thought they could; cure illness, ward off witches, strengthen their prayers, divine the future and bring good luck.

The silver was thought of as protective, in the way that ordinary copper coins were not. Also, earlier examples of the coin had a cross on a shield which conveys both Christian and pre-Christian symbols of protection and faith that other coins lacked. The denomination itself is important too, six is a multiple of three, and three is a powerful number linked to the Holy Trinity. The royal symbols on the coin added to the feeling that this coin had the power to heal. Some people still believed that the king had healing powers. Extra significance could be given to the coin by punching holes into it and engraving it.

Bent and broken six pence coins have been found in large numbers by archaeologists and detectorists at sites of former fairs. It’s possible that young men at fairs would seek to impress their potential partner to be by bending a sixpence in front of them, if you were willing to ruin currency for someone else then that was considered significant. It also became common to break a coin at a wedding too when declaring your vows. This came to symbolise a sharing of wealth between the two parties.

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