Love Token - William Adams, Australia, 1834

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Summary:: Love token made from smoothed and stippled 1797 penny in 1834. This token was made for William Adams to give to his sister.

Love tokens were often commissioned by convicts before they were transported to Australia, as a memento for their loved ones. Itinerant engravers visited the prisons and hulks, finding a ready market for these tokens, which were made to order from smoothed-down coins.

Love tokens are evidence of the British Government?s attitude to law and order and treatment of indentured labourers in a strict Government ?Assignment System? which provided cheap labour for the expanding British empire during the 1700s and 1800s.

About one third of migrants who came to Australia between 1830 and 1850 paid their own way. Convicts and settlers who came to Australia found that in comparison to Europe, conditions were very good and with hard work and determination they could prosper.
Description:: Love token made from smoothed and stippled 1797 penny.

Discipline:	Numismatics
Dimensions:	2 mm (Height), 36 mm (Width), 36 mm (Length), 35 mm (Diameter)

Tagged with:	love tokens, convicts, families, travel, immigration, immigrant voyages, settlement
Themes this item is part of:	Migration Collection, Transport Collection, Leaving Home, Immigration Museum Exhibition, 2007-2017
Primary Classification:	TOKENS
Secondary Classification:	Australia
Tertiary Classification:	love tokens
Series:	Love Tokens
DateEra:	1834 AD
Obverse Description:	Stippled, FEARWELL / DEAR / SISTER
Reverse Description:	Stippled, anchor at centre; around, WILLIAM ADAMS 1834
Edge Description:	Plain
Inscriptions:	Plain (edge) Stippled, FEARWELL / DEAR / SISTER (obverse) Stippled at centre an anchor; around, WILLIAM ADAMS 1834 (reverse)
Shape:	Round
Material:	Copper
Issued By:	William Adams, Australia, 1834
Place & Date Made:	Australia, 1834
Bibliography:	[Book], T Millett, M Field, Convict Love Tokens, Wakefield Press, Adelaide, 1998