There is one type of love token that is historically interesting, sentimental, and very nostalgic. “Well,” you might say, “do not all love tokens fall onto that category?”

The answer, of course, is yes, they certainly do, but consider for a minute the convict love token, one that was made under trying and uncertain circumstances, to say the least, and which often carries some of the most poignant messages ever carved into a coin.

In Timothy Millett’s excellent reference book Convict Love Tokens, editor Michele Field’s first introductory sentence reads, “The love tokens were created by convicted Britons before they were transported to Australia and they touch our hearts because we hear these particular men and women suddenly speak for themselves.”

Through these often crudely carved tokens we enter the minds of these convicts and share their innermost thoughts directly through the coins that they carved.

Understandably, most were carved before the prisoners left for their terrible incarceration thousands of miles from their home and most were carved on the early copper cartwheels or large copper pennies and half pennies. This afforded them a rather large tapestry upon which they could portray their sentiments and what very well could have been their final thoughts to their family and loved ones.

The three convict tokens illustrated here were undoubtedly all carved late in the 18th century, as two of them are dated (the two on half pennies), and the other is on a 1797 cartwheel.

The first coin (Figure 1) is inscribed, “The ring is round that has no end so is my love to you my friend/August 24, 1791.” On the reverse (Figure 2) are the initials ‘AS’ with a small heart over them and leafy branches on either side. The second coin (Figure 3) is a little more crudely carved and reads, “John Kay/H other all/1792.” On the reverse (Figure 4) is a crudely carved ship under full sail, most likely done with very primitive carving instruments.

The third coin (Figure 5) is very nicely done on a cartwheel and has inscribed around a ‘WW’ in the center, “WHEN DEAD AND GONE REMEMBER ME.” One wonders if any of these three people, sailing toward a very uncertain future in a land they had never been to, ever returned to their loved ones, whom I feel certainly treasured these coins more than any of us can imagine.

Convict love tokens—a somewhat new dimension to an already very interesting segment of numismatics.