History of Altered Coin Arts
Coins have been carried for centuries as talismans of good luck, and of course having coins in a pocket also indicates good fortune. At some point additional meaning was attributed to these special coins by means of bending, carving, and engraving. Coin alterations distinguished a coin from other coins in the pocket. The first forms of alterations were bent coins. In England a coin twice best is now referred to as a bender. However, a single bend did not really convey a meaning, so these altered coins later evolved into box coins and engraved coins beginning in the 1600s. Box coins like lockets housed hidden pictures and messages while engraved coins were an outward source of a feeling, emotion, sentiment, or an announcement of a birth, death, or marriage. In the United States engraved coins surfaced during the Civil War as a means of identificaiton for soldiers and then became a jewelry fad in the 1870s through the turn of the century. In the United States these coin engravings have come to be known as love tokens. The present example is one of the earliest known box coins.
1604 Box Taler, made from two 1604 Archduke Ferdinand (1590-1619) Austrian Talers (Davenport 3324). Crowned Shield reverse. Beautifully colored rondels of a young boy and a clown, with basket on back, are mounted to the inside of the obverse and reverse halves. Eleven colorful loose mica rondels (not pictured here), when placed over the image of the young boy, create various scenes inlcuding playing an instrument, pulling a duck in a cart, holding a period rifle, and wearing various royal garb. The coin is EF with choice original toning. The rondels are among the finest in terms of image color and condition with only a couple ragged or torn. These items were created for elite aristocrats of the period.
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