What is the significance of hammered silver coins that were bent at a 90-deg angle?

[Bill D. (VA)]

Years ago when I found the 2 scattered caches of hammered silver coins here in Virginia, two of them (sixpences) were bent exactly in half at a 90-degree angle. One was a 1565 Lizzie and the other was a 1630s Charles I. There are apparently a number of theories as to why these coins were bent, and I wanted to get some opinions on this. I know that some of these coins that have a double bend to form an "S" shape were considered to be love tokens, but not sure that applies to why mine were bent as they were. I appreciate any help with this .... thanks!

 

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[taz42o]

If they are bent by hand you would have to wedge them in somthing and hit them with something else. Do they show sign of being hit on the edge.

 

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[Bill D. (VA)]

If they are bent by hand you would have to wedge them in somthing and hit them with something else. Do they show sign of being hit on the edge.

No, they look like they were placed in a vise and bent exactly 90 deg.

 

[Iron Patch]

I think believing anything other than farm equipment damage is ignoring the obvious and by far the most likely. Even the picture strongly suggests this as several other coins also show a degree of bending and damage. To ignore all of them and to single out the two with a 90 degree bend, and think there is an alternative reason really does not make much sense to me. Also, for the bent love tokens, most would not need much of a look to see the bend going in opposite ways as they tend to be well made and very obvious. Most also seem to be on worn coins... so any bent coin with strong detail my first reaction would be damage. I've seen some with decent detail but way more from worn coins.

Sometimes the answers are simple and not exciting, and that is how I see those.

 

[Echoplex]

Following! I have wondered the exact same thing! On a recent expedition to Germany we found several silvers that were bent perfectly to a 90, right down the center of the coin. It wasn't curved, but like someone put it in a vise and bent it sharp at a 90. When I found the first one, I immediately thought that it was intentional. It was too perfect to be from a farm implement. We also found silvers that were damaged by equipment or tilling, but they were obvious and were badly chipped or all out warped. But this 90 deg bend was something else. In my opinion, it was done by hand and intentional. Collectively, we found 3 or 4 of these perfect bent silvers.

As an interesting aside, farmers were purportedly very superstitious and/or religious in the area we were hunting. We asked an old-timer and local why we were finding so many religious pendants (almost 20 in one field!) and he thought that it was because farmers of the past would bless their fields with them for good luck (good yields). Sadly, I didn't even think to ask about bent coins.

So, broken hearts, good luck, or Occam's Razor? I don't think anyone knows for sure.

 

[taz42o]

I agree with iron patch. I think very few people would have tools to bend a coin that way without hammering and leaving tool marks but a mower blade or plow blade hitting at the bend wouldnt leave other marks.

 

[BullBat]

17th century flick football?

 

[Silver Searcher]

Nothing mysterious about the bend, just done by machinery, or everyday uses. Coins would also be bent to test the silver content.

SS

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Thanks for all the comments, but if you could see these coins you would have to admit they were not randomly struck with farm equipment or whatever. These 2 coins were PERFECTLY bent at EXACTLY a 90 degree angle, and the chances of that happening to both of these coins as a result of a random strike are zero, just like Echoplex mentioned above. Plus they would also have to show plenty of collateral scratch marks in addition to the bend, which they do not. So my opinion is that they were bent for a specific purpose, but it looks like we'll never know what that was. My best guess is that they might be a variation of a love token. I also considered SS's comment about testing the silver content, but why would such a precise bend be needed for that purpose?? BTW - unfortunately, I made the mistake of straightening both of them right after recovery, and wished I had not done that. Never again ....

 

[Red-Coat]

Just tidying up some blasts from the past (including some very ancient ones), largely for the benefit of anyone searching the site for information.

That was an interesting question. This may be of interest.

In 1984, archaeologists found a 1596 Elizabeth I English sixpence at a site that had been a Jesuit plantation between 1637-1942. Close examination of the wear on the coin suggested it had been bent into thirds, carried in that bent state for some time, and then flattened out again. Archaeologist Sara Rivers Cofield said that there was a strong suggestion of it having been bent for some ritual purpose, especially given the potential Jesuit connection, or as a good luck charm.

She says that coins were used for centuries in many ritual contexts, and the English silver sixpence was a particularly common charm. [The possible reasons she gives are by no means unique to the sixpence]: silver was believed to ward off evil; the design included a cross, which had symbolic importance both for Christians and in pre-Christian magic [but the cross on Elizabeth’s coins disappeared in favour of the Royal arms in the James I period, and reappeared as a background to the arms on some issues during the Charles I and Charles II periods before disappearing in favour of the arms during the James II period onwards]; it had an image of a monarch, which could be associated with healing; six is a multiple of three, which is an important number in many religious and magical contexts [but the silver threepence appeared for the first time in 1551].

In Britain and Ireland, people used the coins [not just sixpences] as charms in multiple ways. Yorkshire dairymaids would drop them into cream to counteract any witchcraft that might prevent it being churned into butter. They were also used in divination/fortune-telling, to strengthen prayers, or bring good luck. Some folk used them in rituals associated with marriage or birth. In many cases, the coins used for these purposes were deliberately bent or broken, making them “crooked.”

The folklore for this dates back to a pre-Christian European idea of “killing” an object to dedicate it to a deity and by the early 14th Century, English people customarily bent coins when making a vow to a saint. At times of ill fortune such as the sickness of a loved one, a coin might be bent while making a promise of pilgrimage to a saint’s shrine and reflects a commitment to personal sacrifice when praying for a favour [and sixpence would have been a substantial sacrifice for ordinary folk].

Subsequent to the Protestant Reformation of the 1500s, these kinds of religious rituals were discouraged (although they continued to be used) and coin-bending began to take on a new meaning. Through to the 18th Century bent coins were given as love tokens and sometimes even used in place of a wedding ring at marriage ceremonies.

Note that, of course, not every bent coin will have this kind of significance, or even have been bent deliberately. Hammered silver coins were thin and easily bent. After the great recoinage of 1696, milled coins with a smaller diameter and greater thickness were much more difficult to bend than hammered coins and unlikely to have been accidentally bent.

References:

‘The Magic of a Crooked Sixpence’ - Livia Gershon – JSTOR Daily Dec 8, 2023:

https://daily.jstor.org/the-magic-of-a-crooked-sixpence/

‘Keeping a Crooked Sixpence: Coin Magic and Religion in the Colonial Chesapeake’ - Sara Rivers Cofield in Historical Archaeology, 2014, Vol. 48, No. 3, ‘Manifestations of Magic: The Archaeology and Material Culture of Folk Religion’ (2014), pp. 84-105. Published by: Springer

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43491310