Unusual Large Cent Question

Someone practicing stuff in his workshop or metalshop. A really neat looking coin though and worth keeping. Just boring out a recess to inset the 5 cent took some skill and good tools.

I would presume that it's contemporary: someone back in 1902, using newly-issued coins to make a souvenir of the coronation. Using official coinage meant they could same money by not having to actually design and strike their own medals.

Quite illegal at the time (and still today, of course), defacing a coin of the realm by drilling it out. But cheap, only costing six cents and a bit of labour. I have some modern medals made in a similar fashion (but using a made-for-purpose copper disc, rather than a defaced coin). And yes, it does take some skill to drill only halfway through a coin, and not ruin it by drilling all the way through. I would assume the cracking seen at the bottom of the portrait on the copper-obverse is a result of the drilling process, rather than an original die crack or lamination flaw. Theoretically, you could try to remove the 5 cent piece, but it's probably wedged in there nice and tight and may even have been damaged or sanded down in the process of making the item, so it probably wouldn't be worth the effort.

Edward VII actually surviving until his coronation was quite a big deal at the time. He developed acute appendicitis just before his scheduled coronation, and the coronation date had to be postponed due to his illness. Appendicitis was often fatal back then, but as a result of then-experimental surgery (which subsequently became routine), the king made a full recovery and lived on for another 8 years.

Very interesting. Never seen something like that before.