Australian World War 1 Love Token – From Fred to Kitty

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An interesting Australian love token or forget-me-not penny that most likely dates to World War 1 and originates in South Australia. It is crudely made from a George penny, silvered with attached loop. The reverse has been skimmed off and the following message stamped into it:

FORGET ME NOT
FROM
FRED
WITH FOND LOVE
TO
KITTY
2815

Fred Gifford, service number 2815 was an Australian soldier from World War 1 and he has a letter in his service record (found on the National Archives of Australia) from a certain Kitty (Catherine) Pantzer. He was a member of the crew of Australia’s first tank pictured on this tin badge. You can read the full story of how we established the provenance of this love token and more about Fred Gifford in this article on the Australian Coin Collecting Blog.

Fred Gifford

You can read more about the origins of these interesting forget-me-not pennies here.

Coin Information