Beautifully enameled Newfoundland spoon
The finial of this demi spoon is an enameled 5 cent coin from the Newfoundland colony featuring the bust of Queen Victoria and dated 1894.
The bowl is an enameled 20 cent coin from the Newfoundland colony featuring a bust of Queen Victoria and dated 1896.
Both coins are coin quality silver as is the twisty handle.
Newfoundland was a British colony until 1907 and a dominion until 1949 when it became the tenth province of Canada
During the late 19th and early 20th
century time period love
tokens were made by removing the details from the back of a coin
and engraving dates or other designs
onto the coin (more detail below)
This is a strange hand made coin spoon.
At the finial is a twisted heavy silver wire which is soldered onto a twisty stem
I suspect that it was supposed to be a bow or ribbon.
Perhaps this was a school project.
INTERESTING STORY OF UNUSUAL RELATIONSHIPS
The bowl appears to be a coin featuring a profile of Queen Victoria
Part of the back of the coin has been deliberately removed leaving only the border decoration.
The bowl front features a left facing profile of Queen Victoria
The bowl obverse coin details have been deliberately removed and the back is
engraved "Victoria BC" along with some tiny branches with leaves.
This relatively tiny demi sized spoon features an unusual simulated gold nugget star design at the finial
I spent several hours researching this spoon. I finally figured out that the coin was made by Britain for use in Hong Kong.
This silver coin then had the back obliterated and was engraved with "Victoria B.C." The spoon was then gold plated.
That is a lot of work for a souvenir spoon so it was probably a custom design.
Later I was working on my British coin spoons and I found another spoon with a very similar image of Queen Victoria,
but this coin was intact and was not gold washed.
The crown on the two coins is slightly different, but they are close enough for me to believe that they are substantially the same coin.
Canadian half dollar love token spoon
The spoon handle features a twisty stem and topped by a round finial which is engraved "L.A.S."
I don't know if those are the initials of the giver or the recipient
The bowl is a silver fifty cent coin which has been modified into a spoon bowl shape
The front of the coin features Queen Victoria while the back of the coin was removed and the following was engraved
"Victoria B.C. May 28, 92"
I suspect that somebody had a very memorable date.
This nice spoon from Victoria B.C. features a coin modified token on the top and another one on the bottom.
The top coin is a dime and the reverse shows the head of Queen Victoria. The back has been decorated with flowers and the date '1890'.
The botton coin is a quarter and the back has been changed to the same (top) flower design with the words 'Victoria B.C.'
Love Token History
Around the turn of the 20th century different items were given as 'tokens' of a man's love for a woman. Spoons were widely used and there are a number of 'love' spoons shown in different exhibits.
In a few cases coins were also used. One side of the coin was left intact and the other side was smoothed out and engraved with a name or initials and sometimes a date.
Flowers were also a sign of affection and we frequently find flowered spoons engraved in a romantic fashion.
click to see love spoons
click to see flower spoons
In 1964, a silver dollar was issued to commemorate the 100th anniversary (1864) of the start of talks to make a Canadian Confederation.
The design on the front features a 27 year old Queen Elizabeth II. The obverse features a French fleur-de-lis, the Irish shamrock, the Scottish thistle, and the English rose.
The talks were held at Charlottetown and Quebec City.
The front of the spoon finial features the Canadian Coat-of-Arms and on this piece the back of the finial is engraved 'Myrtle'.
Myrtle Jenkins Smith was the Facilitator for Tourism in Charlottetown and later served in a number of other positions
1901 Canadian half dime at the top and engraved view of Rachine Rapids, Montreal in the bowl
Click Here to see a very unusual meat fork featuring Canadian Dimes and an old US penny
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