\[ **keywords:** #Courtship #Foundlings #Tokens/Love ] --- > [!cite] Citation > Holloway, Sally. ‘Tokens of History: Love Tokens’. Founding Museum. Accessed 4 January 2025, https://foundlingmuseum.org.uk/tokens-of-history/love-tokens/. --- ‘“Crooked” coins were superstitious objects thought to bring good fortune. They were used to wish love and luck into the future of a courting couple, or foundlings left at the Hospital. Indeed, these may well have been the same objects repurposed from mother to child. Lucky ‘benders’ were smoothed to a blank surface and bent to form an ‘S’ shape. They were often pierced with holes, either to give them a further distinctive feature, or enabling them to be worn around the neck on a ribbon. One foundling was left with a bent silver shilling punched with two holes and etched with the initials “T * R”, likely their given name. It represents a mother’s love for her child, her hope for their future, and a past identity about to be left behind.’ [[Holloway, ‘Love Tokens’|(Holloway, n.d.)]] ^ced030