Love token

[Deeman]

Engraved 1895 penny with obverse ground flat and engraved with a couple making love on a chaise longue.

[Figleaf]

This may just have been a form of trench art, where a lonely soldier makes his own pornography.

However, the host was struck in 1895, an era in which social mores were severely repressive on sex. It is no coincidence that Freud founded psycho-analysis in Vienna in the 1890s.

In such a climate, it is difficult to educate one's children. There are several solutions from that era, usually in the form of hidden pictures, given to the bride or groom, that explain their "marital duties". One of the most accomplished I saw was a doll house with a hidden room and a button that would move two silhouetted people to have sex. This coin may be a poor man's variety on that theme. From a distance, it would indeed look like a conventional love token.

Peter

[FosseWay]

The host coin was struck in 1895, but it is pretty worn. Far more worn than 1971 coppers are today, 50 years on, or 1947 shillings and florins were in the 1990s when they were taken out of circulation. Trench art or similar (perhaps a PoW with time on his hands) is a possibility, though given the wear perhaps the Second World War is a more likely candidate time-wise.

I don't think poor Victorians needed pictorial explanations of what to do in bed. They lived in small houses with hordes of kids. Where do you think the older kids were when the younger ones were conceived?

[brandm24]

It doesn't seem to be a conventional love token...no initials, hearts, words of endearment, or such. Maybe the engraving tells it all and nothing more was required.

I suppose it could have been used as a brothel token but they were generally a little more "classy." Gotta think about this one a little more.

Bruce