Commendation Ninepence

A bent silver ninepence, supposed to be lucky, and commonly used in the seventeenth century as a love-token, the giver or sender using these words, “From my love, to my love.” Sometimes the coin was broken, and each kept a part.

“Like commendation ninepence, crooked,

With ‘To and from my love,ʹ it looked.”

Butler: Hudibras, i. 1.

“Filbert: As this divides, thus are we torn in twain.

Kitty: And as this meets, thus may we meet again.”

Gay: What dʹye Call It?

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.