Poll: Charley versus Jennie- a popularity cointest!
lordmarcovan
Posts: 43,673 ✭✭✭✭✭
I bought TWO love token pictorials tonight, both on Seated dimes.
Didn't really intend to buy two; it just sort of worked out that way.
The first coin we'll call "Charley", for obvious reasons. The second one "Jennie", as you'll see.
Jennie was quite reasonably priced, at $39.00 with free shipping. Any time you can find a nice pictorial love token on a 19th century coin (even a Seated dime, which is by far the most common host), you should pull the trigger, in my opinion. (Or let me know about it!) So I followed my own advice and hit the Buy-It-Now button. Pow! Jennie is mine.
I had actually seen Charley first. Charley was NOT so reasonably priced. The seller was asking $95.00, which is indicative of some of the price hikes I've seen in pictorial love tokens in the past few years. It's a very nice piece, but not $95.00 nice! It had a Best Offer option, though, so I decided to offer $44.65. The seller countered with something like $85.00. Nice token or not, there was no way I was going over my fifty-dollar limit on this piece, particularly as I had already bought Jennie by this point. So I counteroffered the counteroffer, for $49.65. With free shipping, that would put Charley right under the $50.00 line, but I did not expect the seller to accept that since we were so far apart. But to my surprise, he or she did, so... pow! Charley is now mine as well.
So now I have both Charley AND Jennie coming. (Interestingly, I have two female coworkers by those names, with the exact same spellings.)
But for a type set, I really only need one of these coins.
Which should I keep? These are both nice pictorials, though neither is a truly exceptional example worthy of a three-figure pricetag. Both host coins are in decent condition.
Seated dime love tokens being as common as they are, another pictorial will likely one day come along for my collection that trumps both of these.
But in the meantime... which one?
Here's Charley, on an 1883 dime, with a sunrise landscape scene.
It is holed, as is fairly typical (and y'all know from my past collecting habits I don't mind that).
BTW, I don't think there are actually any flat spots on the edges of the coin.
That is just a result of my circle-cropping and editing the pictures, which made things a tiny bit wonky looking.
The seller had the reverse design rotated at an odd angle so I had to correct for that and skew the pix to make the coin round.
Larger obverse picture
Larger reverse picture
Here's Jennie, on an 1890 dime, with a seascape and beach scene.
It is unholed with some tan-grey original toning.
A seascape subject is slightly more common than the landscape seen on Charley, but so what.
Larger obverse picture
Larger reverse picture
Didn't really intend to buy two; it just sort of worked out that way.
The first coin we'll call "Charley", for obvious reasons. The second one "Jennie", as you'll see.
Jennie was quite reasonably priced, at $39.00 with free shipping. Any time you can find a nice pictorial love token on a 19th century coin (even a Seated dime, which is by far the most common host), you should pull the trigger, in my opinion. (Or let me know about it!) So I followed my own advice and hit the Buy-It-Now button. Pow! Jennie is mine.
I had actually seen Charley first. Charley was NOT so reasonably priced. The seller was asking $95.00, which is indicative of some of the price hikes I've seen in pictorial love tokens in the past few years. It's a very nice piece, but not $95.00 nice! It had a Best Offer option, though, so I decided to offer $44.65. The seller countered with something like $85.00. Nice token or not, there was no way I was going over my fifty-dollar limit on this piece, particularly as I had already bought Jennie by this point. So I counteroffered the counteroffer, for $49.65. With free shipping, that would put Charley right under the $50.00 line, but I did not expect the seller to accept that since we were so far apart. But to my surprise, he or she did, so... pow! Charley is now mine as well.
So now I have both Charley AND Jennie coming. (Interestingly, I have two female coworkers by those names, with the exact same spellings.)
But for a type set, I really only need one of these coins.
Which should I keep? These are both nice pictorials, though neither is a truly exceptional example worthy of a three-figure pricetag. Both host coins are in decent condition.
Seated dime love tokens being as common as they are, another pictorial will likely one day come along for my collection that trumps both of these.
But in the meantime... which one?
Here's Charley, on an 1883 dime, with a sunrise landscape scene.
It is holed, as is fairly typical (and y'all know from my past collecting habits I don't mind that).
BTW, I don't think there are actually any flat spots on the edges of the coin.
That is just a result of my circle-cropping and editing the pictures, which made things a tiny bit wonky looking.
The seller had the reverse design rotated at an odd angle so I had to correct for that and skew the pix to make the coin round.
Larger obverse picture
Larger reverse picture
Here's Jennie, on an 1890 dime, with a seascape and beach scene.
It is unholed with some tan-grey original toning.
A seascape subject is slightly more common than the landscape seen on Charley, but so what.
Larger obverse picture
Larger reverse picture
0
Comments
Time will come when another LT comes along and then you can make a more rational decision and offer the lesser
for trade.
It's kind of neat how both of these have a diagonal band in the design going upward from left to right. That isn't extremely unusual, but it's not exactly dirt-common with pictorials, either.
However, I'd be inclined to keep the female token for some reason.
I voted to keep both.
Maybe it'll come down to a token flip when the decision is necessary.
Congrats, btw.
"If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"
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When do you think these were made? Jennie is not a common 19th century name, so I'd reckon maybe the 1940s-1950s or even later.
Cheers, RickO
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I think they both have some charm and are quite nice. I'd give the edge to Jennie and the seascape.
When do you think these were made? Jennie is not a common 19th century name, so I'd reckon maybe the 1940s-1950s or even later.
From my seven years' experience with love tokens, I'm pretty sure these are contemporary to the host coins and carved no later than the turn of the century (or perhaps as late as 1910 in Charley's case). A 1940s-50s carving would have a vastly different style and would likely have been done on a different host coin. By that era, the love token fad had greatly died out and the few pieces that did get made were predominantlty on larger-denomination hosts like Walker halves and Peace dollars. (Or French silver during WW1 and Australian and British silver during WW2 when US soldiers were overseas.)
Besides, there were plenty of 19th century Jennies. Take Jennie Lind, "the Swedish Nightingale", for one example.
(Eh- whoops-- her name was spelled with a " -y" at the end. But trust me. I'm sure there were plenty of "-ie" Jennies too.)
And as to telephoto1's comment, I have seen both of these styles used on 19th century pieces, though the "Charley" style seems to be much more late-Victorian or Edwardian and closer to the turn of the century. Jennie, though on a later host, is carved in an earlier style.
I picked Charley because it reminds me of a Vt. Landscape coin!
Kaz- great minds think alike! I had the exact same thought when I first saw it.
Charley, because I like the "artwork" better. Given the slope of the buildings, Jennie must really be a reference Hurricane Jennie ...... (tongue and cheek - I don't think there is a St. Jennie day). Nebulous way of saying the symmetry of Charley's art is better than Jennie's to my eye.
It is indeed, Mr. Frog, if only by a slight margin. Charley's creator was quite proficient. Jennie's was no slouch, either, but working in an older style, probably with different tools. The leaning buildings are rather whimsical looking. (Actually, I kind of like whimsical.)
With love tokens, it's all about the art for me, though the better the host coin is, the more that adds to the appeal.
Naturally, some traditional numismatic concepts like the taboo against cleaning do not apply in this field. These are, after all, almost exclusively ex-jewelry pieces. And they can often acquire attractive secondary toning over time, since most haven't been worn for a long while.
the reason i choose jenny is that she looks like she was carved closer to her issue date.
Again, that's likely because of the older style techniques used. Charley too was likely carved not very long after the host coin date, though there could've been a 10- or 25-year span there. Indeed, most of the late Victorian carvings I've seen done in the "Charley Style" were on 1880s host coins.
But you're right. Charley has more of a turn of the century look while Jennie has that earlier look seen in the 1870s and even earlier.
Cooler looking sun and the birds and whale w/ the spout are neat.
Also no hole on that one which is a plus for me
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Voted for Jennie.
Cooler looking sun and the birds and whale w/ the spout are neat.
Also no hole on that one which is a plus for me
Whale with a spout? I thought it was a sailboat. That's usually what one sees. But hm- I guess it could be a whale. Neat.
I would keep Jennie. It doesn't have that harshly cleaned look like Charley.
So....what you're saying is, that if he were to submit Charlie there's a good chance that LM would end up having two Jennies?
"If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"
My Washington Quarter Registry set...in progress
See as a love token cleanings don't matter to me and to be honest I would make the seascape look a little more sunny as intended. It would also bring out the details a little bit if you G-F-B used an erasser on the sun rays you cold get a neat looking effect. (if throwing stones at me for my comment aim for my feet as I wont feel it much, thanks)
I'll pass on the eraser (did that to my favorite Bust half as a kid and still own the coin), but I'm not averse to the occasional little diperoo now and then on stuff like this.
Jennie looks OK "crusty", but you're right- it might look a bit nicer after a quick EZ-Est dunk. But I dunno if I'd actually do it or not. (Probably not, in this particular case.)
So....what you're saying is, that if he were to submit Charlie there's a good chance that LM would end up having two Jennies?
Verily, thou art a master of the snappy pun, Sparky.