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 Replies: 10 / Views: 2,231 |
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New Member
Canada
3 Posts |
Hello, I found this among my great-grandfather's effects and would like to know what it is. It appears to be a coin or token from Queen Victoria's reign, but it has no date and no denomination. I have looked online but cannot find anything like it. I don't know how to describe the strange design that appears on the obverse side. It appears to be bronze or blackened copper. Can anyone help me identify what it is? I would be most grateful.  |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1618 Posts |
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Valued Member
Canada
242 Posts |
It's either on a 50-cent or 25 cent coin, in either case it's silver and quite collectible!
LRC
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New Member
 Canada
3 Posts |
Hi johnnysprawl....Can you tell me more? Are you saying that this was originally a coin but someone shaved off the back that contained the date and denomination and engraved the design that shows in my picture, then attached a pin over Victoria's face so it could be worn? I thought it was illegal for people to deface coins. It does look like the engraving on the obverse is very crisp and poor old Victoria's face is more worn and the print around the edge is spoiled where the ends of a pin would have been attached. Fasinating...I couldn't figure out what the obverse side engraving was, but now that you have explained what the thing is, I realize that it says Bell. My great-grandfather was Abraham Sylvester Huff, and his third wife (my great-grandmother) was Isabella Robertson Huff. He was always called 'Vest' and she was 'Bell.' What I thought was a random coin has become a family keepsake. Thank you very much.
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Pillar of the Community
 Canada
9862 Posts |
At 30mm diameter it would be a former 50 cent coin.
Some beautiful handiwork on that one.
Great family heirloom!
"Dipping" is not considered cleaning...
-from PCGS website
Edited by DBM
03/27/2021 10:06 pm
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2781 Posts |
as others have stated, it's a "love token"
and honestly one of the best, if not THEE best, that I have seen.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1775 Posts |
That sure is a feel good story. Congrats on such a precious item.
"We are poor little lambs...who have lost our way...Baa...Baa...Baa"
In memory of those members who left us too soon...
In memory of Tootallious March 31, 1964 - April 15, 2020
In memory of crazyb0 July 27 2020. RIP.
In memory of T-BOP Oct. 12, 1949 - Jan. 19, 2024
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Valued Member
Canada
363 Posts |
very nice personalized piece of your ggmother...truly a great lost art that you never see much these days
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
5239 Posts |
Put it in something with a note so that nobody will forget the family connection.
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New Member
Canada
3 Posts |
Thank you for all the lovely advise and compliments everyone. I am thrilled with the find. My father recently passed and I found the love token in a little box with a metal milk token and small paper tokens entitling the holder to pints or quarts of milk from my Great Grandfather Vest's dairy. He established Huff's Maple Leap Dairy on the north side of Edmonton, Alberta in 1913. He had previously had a dairy in Chatham Ontario but brought his family west during a minor property boom in Alberta's capital city. I doubt that my father ever knew the significance of the love token. I studied the engraving for quite a while, but like the optical illusions you see, I was looking at the spaces between the letters, trying to figure out what they were without success. It was only after I learned that the piece was a love token, that I was suddenly able to see the word 'Bell.' How easily we can lose our pasts if we don't pay proper attention. Again, thank you all.
Edited by Puffy
03/28/2021 2:03 pm
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Moderator
 United States
187862 Posts |
 to the Community! |
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Replies: 10 / Views: 2,231 |
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Posted 03/27/2021 9:26 pm
