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Distributed for Paul Holberton Publishing

Tokens of Love, Loss and Disrespect

1700 – 1850

With Other Contributions by Timothy Millett, Tim Hitchcock, Susan Whyman, Steve Poole, Sally Holloway, Katrina Navickas, Joe Cozens, Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, Graham Dyer, Gary Oddie, and Brian Maidme
Coins are physically and visually intriguing. Explicitly designed to have monetary value, they can be used for their intended purpose. But coins have also frequently been repurposed to communicate private and public messages—from ad hoc scratchings and punch marks to complete re-engraving of surfaces. As carriers of messages, coins have the advantage of being unobtrusive: They can easily be carried around, and their exchange does not arouse suspicion. 
 
Tokens of Love, Loss and Disrespect gives insight into the many unofficial purposes coins served in the past. Drawing on the largest extant collection of defaced coins and tokens, Sarah Lloyd brings together the full range of expertise required to understand the phenomenon, with contributions from eleven scholars and collectors. Tokens of Love, Loss and Disrespect focuses on a period in British history when modification of coinage expressed political commentary, commercial activity, familial and emotional commitment, personal identity, and life history. It examines the coins and tokens themselves and looks at who modified them, where, why, and how. Defaced coins and tokens are often enigmatic objects, and this book offers a means of decoding and assessing them, while also drawing attention to their value as a distinctive source of historical evidence. Tokens of Love, Loss and Disrespect considers what these surviving coins reveal about the society in which they were produced and the light they shed on major historical developments of the period.

356 pages | 250 color plates | 6 3/4 x 9 1/4

Art: Art--General Studies


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Reviews

"With 17 essays by coin experts, collectors, historians and the cartoonist Martin Rowson, collated into five parts covering subjects like 'Love and Memory', 'Politics' and 'Image and Representation', it is also a plea for these scraps of metal to be taken more seriously."

The Art Newspaper

"the volume considers the histories behind many of these mementoes and the unofficial or subversive purposes they served"

Antique Trade Gazette

"the essays in this volume demonstrate the significance of coin engraving as an important material source for studies on British politics and society in the long-eighteenth century... The design of the book is attractive and it is edited and printed to a high standard. The final word must go to the images, which are magnificent..."

British Numismatic Journal

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