10 Unusual Love Tokens from History

Come the 14th of February, most of us will be happy to receive a Valentine’s Day card or a bunch of red roses. Cards, flowers, and sweets are universal tokens of love today, but people haven’t always exchanged these familiar items to express their affection. A Victorian lady, for example, might have received an acrostic ring set with gems whose names spelled out DEAREST (diamond, emerald, amethyst, ruby, emerald, sapphire, topaz). Who wouldn’t want to be given one of those? 

And the further you look back in history, the stranger the love tokens become. Here are just a few. 

1. Lovers’ Eyes 
2. Hair Jewelry
3. Bent Coins
4. Posy Rings 
5. Broken Pottery
6. Love Spoons
7. Puzzle Purses
8. Convict Pennies 
9. Animal Horns and Teeth
10. Stay Busks 

Lovers’ Eyes 

These days, if your sweetheart is far away, you might give them a video call—but in the 18th century, lovers had to go with the technology at their disposal. An admirer could hire a miniaturist to paint a tiny, detailed portrait of their eye to give to their beloved. This trend was supposedly started in the late 18th century by the future King George IV when he wanted to send a secret sign of affection to his mistress, Maria Fitzherbert, with the idea being that only a true lover would recognize someone from their eyes alone. Soon, lovers’ eyes proliferated as love tokens on snuff boxes, rings, and early Valentine’s cards.

Hair Jewelry

In addition to bestowing lover’s eyes, George IV is said to have collected the pubic hair of his many mistresses. Most 19th-century Britons spurned this particular passion but did like to make jewelry and art from their loved ones’ head hair. Simple bracelets of hair plaited together were passed between lovers in the countryside, while rings and pendants with intricately woven designs were made for upper-class expressions of affection. Those hoping to start their own hair art business could consult books of patterns, while the truly artistic could create delicate lace mementos meant to be worn by the recipient.

Bent Coins

If you happen to go mudlarking in London, one of the most common types of artifacts you’ll discover along the riverbanks are coins twisted into an S-shape, many of which are featured in an upcoming exhibition of mudlarking finds at the London Museum. These coins were bent or defaced in some way; for example, a suitor could scratch their initials into the coin (perhaps to prevent the recipient from spending the money if the love cooled). It’s probably best not to give bent coins as love tokens today, since destroying coins is now illegal in the UK.

Posy Rings 

Another type of love token that turns up surprisingly often in the Thames are posy rings. These jewelry pieces, which date from the 14th century onwards, have secret messages engraved on the inside that only the receiver knows. London Museum’s collection includes early examples written in Norman French, Latin, and English. They can be heavily decorated on the outside with botanical or religious designs and with interior messages like mon cor avez (“have my heart”) or nul autre (“none other”). They can also be quite plain, like a metal band inscribed with continu constant on the inside.

Broken Pottery

Writing materials were expensive in the ancient world, but that didn’t stop Greeks and Romans of all social classes from leaving graffiti and erotic notes wherever they could. The walls of Pompeii are a riot of bawdy scribbles, while some Latin writers left more tender messages on pieces of broken pottery as love tokens. A fragment of Italian red ware discovered in Leicester, England, had the words Verecunda ludia Lucius gladiator (“Verecunda the dancer, Lucius the gladiator”) scratched into its surface and a hole drilled through it, suggesting it was suspended by a cord and worn around the neck. Whether it was a gift to or from Verecunda is not known. 

Love Spoons

Cutlery may not be everyone’s idea of a Valentine’s gift, but in Wales, spoons were the ultimate symbol of romance. Since at least the 17th century, men have carved wooden spoons with motifs relating to love to give to their partners. The symbols evolved from simple hearts engraved on the handles to more elaborate displays of craftsmanship and characters with specific meanings. Carving a ball trapped in a cage symbolized love being held secure, and a fully articulated chain represented eternal love. The greater the complexity of the spoon, the deeper the love expressed.

Puzzle Purses

Before you could head to the store and buy a Valentine’s Day card, people had to get creative in fashioning their own paper tokens. Made of sheets of paper folded in a complex way, puzzle purses were love notes richly decorated with flowers and other symbols of love. To unlock the puzzle purse without ripping it, you had to delicately unfold the paper in a certain order, and then the messages would be revealed. The decoration itself could also hide secret meanings using floriography, the symbolism of flowers. A red carnation, for example, meant “alas for my poor heart”—ideal for those seeking to be dramatic.

Convict Pennies 

In the 18th century, Great Britain decided that the best way to deal with people convicted of crimes was “transportation,” which meant shipping them to colonies on the far side of the world. For the men and women sent away, there was little chance to say goodbye to loved ones, so they made love tokens out of flattened penny coins etched with words and images as reminders to those they left behind. Such coins were sometimes known as “leaden hearts” or “Newgate tokens” (after the British prison of the same name) and have messages that are still touching today. One reads, “When on this peice {sic} you cast an eye, think on the man that is not nigh.”

Animal Horns and Teeth

Suitors in the 18th and 19th centuries often carved love tokens out of whatever material was at hand. According to the National Museum of Wales, a cow horn carved with intricate patterns in its collection was once traded as a love token, perhaps by a farmer or butcher. 

Sailors on whaling voyages, who spent months or years at sea missing their wives and sweethearts, passed the time by making scrimshaw—the folk art of etching designs onto bone and teeth. These love tokens were made from whale bone, baleen, walrus tusks, and sperm whale teeth and often depicted portraits of their loved ones, pictures of their ships, and patriotic imagery. Some artisans even carved domestic implements such as yarn winders, pie crimpers, combs, and sewing needles from the ivory as gifts. For obvious reasons, the trade in animal parts as romantic tokens, especially those derived from endangered species, has fallen off in recent decades.

Stay Busks 

The whaling industry also supported (literally) the rise of stays and corsets in 18th-century female fashion. The undergarments kept a woman’s torso constricted with stiff boning made from baleen found in some whale species’ mouths. In the front of the stays a length of whale bone, wood, or metal called a busk was inserted, often extending from between the wearer’s breasts to the hips. Busks offered a surface for a suitor to carve a love note, his and her initials, wedding date, or images. Examples survive with simple geometric designs and hearts, but some were more complex and explicit. One rather racy example, said to have belonged to a noble French lady, had the following engraved:

“How I envy you the happiness that is yours, resting softly on her ivory white breast. Let us divide between us, if you please, this glory. You will be here the day and I shall be there the night.”

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