Convict Love Tokens: The Leaden Hearts the Convicts Left Behind

by Michele Field (Editor), Michelle Field, Michele Field (Editor)

Intriguing and poignant messages from the past are borne by the "love tokens" produced by British convicts sentenced to transportation to Australia. Expelled from the known world, usually never to see their loved ones again, convicts defaced cartwheel pennies - sanding back the King's head on one side and Britannia on the other - and engraved their keepsakes with a variety of hopes, fears, messages and predictions. "Convict Love Tokens" catalogues and describes the small coins containing messages to family and loved ones from British convicts about to be exiled to Australia. The authors include photographs of these miniature works of art and sorrow, as well as accounts of the lives of the men and women who made them to leave behind as remembrances. A moving and fascinating account of a little known aspect of Australian and British history.

122 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1998