A beta project from the National Museum of Australia

The National Museum of Australia has 314 convict love tokens in its collection. These tokens were made by convicts around the time of their sentencing and were given to friends and loved ones as mementos.

What is a convict love token?

Read more about the collection

Token engraved with a stippled border of leaves and stippled cursive text:

No
Pen can
Write no
tongue can
tell the
Aching Heart
That Bids
Farewell.

Simon Barnard says:

Hiya, this token can be attributed to Charles Betts, an English sheep thief who served 12 months in 1849. S...

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Dianne says:

I am fairly certain that this man is my GGG grandfather. In the process of researching my family tree, I ca...

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Sophie_Jensen says:

Hi Dave – thanks for your comment. We puzzled over this one too and debated ‘thiss or thys’ – either may in...

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Dave says:

Absolutely fascinating! I had no idea of the existence of these valuable tokens. Just a question - and it...

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