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Love token on 1795 Flowing Hair dollar
1630Boston
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Type Coin
Title C K Love Token
Creator John Baumgart
Date 1795
Country U.S.
Side reverse
Composition silver
Denomination $1
Description Love token on 1795 Flowing Hair dollar, reverse ornately engraved C K (or K C) with rifle resting between tree branches.
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Comments
That is some of the finest engraving I have seen on a love token. It's too bad we don't know who CK or KC was.
Very nice work. One cannot help but like it.
Wow... Masterful engraving... Really nice. Very impressive. Cheers, RickO
I have seen this before, not sure where it may have been here.
Nice engraving!!
I believe it was shown here before. Can't remember who.
Young Numismatist/collector
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It is a superb engraving but I feel bad for that dollar. Maybe it was contemporary at the time but I’d rather see a common Morgan sacrificed...
TurtleCat Gold Dollars
That is great
11.5$ Southern Dollars, The little “Big Easy” set
FWIW, that looks like a Shotgun with a Hammer(s) that might help in dating when it was engraved. my hunch is in the mid-late 1800's.
Nice to see this one again. Great piece.
I believe that a member here, Realone, bought it and posted pics a year or two ago...
mbogoman
https://pcgs.com/setregistry/collectors-showcase/classic-issues-colonials-through-1964/zambezi-collection-trade-dollars/7345Asesabi Lutho
@ keets Seems like it was figured to be in the 1800's.
Remarkable.
This part is intriguing. It looks very different. Some message?
Lance.
What defines it to be a love token? Could almost be a symbol for some kind of secret society especially with the strange markings in Ikeigwin's enlargement. (Though I think we safely rule out Cu Klux for the C and K.
. )
How long would it have taken the coin to reach the level of wear shown by the obverse? This might give a fairly actual time of the etching to have occurred. There is surely a known quantitative average measure of circulation for the series. Just an opinion.
Jim
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest....Abraham Lincoln
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.....Mark Twain
At first glance a great piece, but so many questions...
(How do we know the "creator" of the coin, by the way?)
As Keets observed, that shotgun dates from the 2nd half of the 19th century. Ouch. They couldn't have used a Seated Liberty or Trade Dollar?
BTW, could KC stand for Knights of Columbus? I don't necessarily think so but thought I'd throw it out there.
I think the name is the person who photographed and or owned the coin, not the creator.
Successful transactions with : MICHAELDIXON, Manorcourtman, Bochiman, bolivarshagnasty, AUandAG, onlyroosies, chumley, Weiss, jdimmick, BAJJERFAN, gene1978, TJM965, Smittys, GRANDAM, JTHawaii, mainejoe, softparade, derryb
Bad transactions with : nobody to date
I'm not impressed.
To say I like it is a spectacular understatement.
As the percussion cap was introduced in the early 1800's can we further identify anything more advance about the engraved shotgun to identify its date?
Jim
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest....Abraham Lincoln
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.....Mark Twain
The firearm is unloaded........................
The lower part of the 'K' is not attached/broken off [if that is a 'K', maybe it's a 'Y'...........
we will never know
Successful transactions with : MICHAELDIXON, Manorcourtman, Bochiman, bolivarshagnasty, AUandAG, onlyroosies, chumley, Weiss, jdimmick, BAJJERFAN, gene1978, TJM965, Smittys, GRANDAM, JTHawaii, mainejoe, softparade, derryb
Bad transactions with : nobody to date
1795 might be the birthdate of the original "KC or CK". The coin itself was probably engraved much later. It was probably not a "love" token but some kind of personal interest token for someone who loved to hunt with the shotgun. Who ever it was, they were probably quite wealthy.
.
thanks. that one had me a bit perplexed.
True, but the shotgun is broken open, so it is a cartridge gun.
Technically pinfire cartridges came first then maybe rimfire briefly, but far more likely is that it fired conventional centerfire shells.
I don't recall all the dates of the various developments offhand, but I'd guess 1870s onward.
The development of the double shotgun includes (top to bottom) a muzzleloading percussion double, an exposed hammer breechloader, a sidelock (with hammers inside the action) and a boxlock.
Successful transactions with : MICHAELDIXON, Manorcourtman, Bochiman, bolivarshagnasty, AUandAG, onlyroosies, chumley, Weiss, jdimmick, BAJJERFAN, gene1978, TJM965, Smittys, GRANDAM, JTHawaii, mainejoe, softparade, derryb
Bad transactions with : nobody to date
How beautiful are those guns. Nowadays it’d be an engraved AR or some crap.
It looks like it had an earlier graffiti
Looks like the work of a gun engraver.
I'm going to hazard a guess that this coin was engraved around 1865-70. If we surmise that 1795 was the birthday of the original owner that would make him 70-75 at the time it was engraved. The coin itself was probably already well worn at the time it was engraved. The engraving, however, only shows slight signs of wear on the stock of the shotgun and the high points of the branches. If this was intended as a pocket piece, which it probably was, that would indicate that the original owner only carried it for a relatively short period until his death or disability.
It is too bad we will never know the true story.
Really neat piece. Thanks for sharing!
Super cool! I really appreciate the engraving.
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The usual great photography from John!
Kansas City
Lafayette Grading Set
Really nice!
Do you think it's a memorial piece rather than a "love token"?
I don't see anything odd there, looks like a leaf to my eyes, matches the other smaller leaves elsewhere on the engraving. I am certain that the engraver knew what the initials stood for lol. But he never thought ahead that nobody else would in the future which is unfortunate. The subject matter is interesting, like someone else here said the owner must have been an avid woodsman hunter. The intriguing aspect is the broken tree limbs, why was that made significant?