Engraved coin keepsakes, customary between 1752 and 1868, are a durable material culture of absence and separation. Although already known by numismatic collectors, these tokens remained virtually anonymous to scholarly research until the 1990s. They resurfaced thanks to Tim Millett, who made his extensive private collection available to museums. These love tokens fall into three categories: Sailors' Farewell Coins, Prisoner Coins and Leaden Hearts (convict coins with transportation association). They allow us to shed light on how sailors, criminals and commoners alike saw themselves and their parting from dear ones.

Abney Park tells its own tales about this world of punishment and separation. Chartist orator Henry Vincent, buried here, was tracked by government spies at a time when transportation to Australia was a common punishment for social unrest. Also resting at Abney Park is Archibald "Archie" Sloss, a burglar transported first to Bermuda, then to Western Australia, before reforming and joining the Salvation Army — his funeral in 1900 drew hundreds through London.

Join us at Abney Park, final resting place of reformers and reprobates alike, for a talk on these small, defiant tokens of love against impossible odds.

For more information:‍ ‍‍ Please visit https://abneypark.org/upcoming-events/2026/8/31/think-if-the-man-that-is-not-nigh-the-narrative-of-engraved-coins-1752-1868 to buy tickets for this event.