Unusual Coins

Some convicted criminals from the British Isles who were sentenced to transportation to Australia in the 18th and 19th centuries used coins to leave messages of remembrance to loved ones left behind in Britain. The coins were defaced, smoothed and inscribed, either by stippling or engraving, with sometimes touching words of loss. These coins were called "convict love tokens" or "leaden hearts". A number of these tokens are in the collection of the National Museum of Australia.
Features of modern coins
Circulating coins commonly suffered from "shaving" or "clipping", by which persons would cut off small amounts of precious metal from their edges to form new coins. Unmilled British sterling silver coins were sometimes reduced to almost half their minted weight. This form of debasement in Tudor England was commented on by Sir Thomas Gresham, whose name was later attached to Gresham's Law. The monarch would have to periodically recall circulating coins, paying only bullion value of the silver, and reminting them. This, also known as recoinage, is a long and difficult process that was done only occasionally. While master of the Royal Mint, Isaac Newton came up with the idea of milling lines on the edges of coins to make it easier to detect coin clipping and to help reduce recoining. The milled, or reeded, edges are still found on many coins today.