An emotive and poignant exhibition, Convict Tokens, which explores the enduring connection between the convicts who made these tiny mementos and those they left behind, are on display at Warwick Art Gallery until 5 July.

The exhibition showcases forty of the National Museum of Australia’s collection of 315 convict tokens, which is the world’s largest.

Engraved onto metal discs with illustrations and text, love tokens were made by convicts around the time of their sentencing and were given to friends and loved ones as farewell mementos.

Although tiny, these tokens are rich in meaning and are a powerful link to Australia’s convict past. Convicts’ lives are well documented by official government records, however, these tokens record personal and emotional responses to an uncertain future.

The tokens were engraved or stippled, which involved making marks with a series of small pinpricks.

They might include the name of the convict and their loved one, the length of the convict’s sentence and popular phrases and rhymes of separation.

The tokens often contain clues that confirm their origin. They might feature figures in chains or birds soaring free. They often refer to slavery, liberty, being lag’d (imprisoned) or even ‘cast for death’.

Some tokens show signs of being made by the same hand, suggesting that more skilled convicts made and sold tokens to others.

Most of the tokens were acquired in 2008 from Timothy Millet, a British dealer and collector. Millett attempted to discover information about the people named on the tokens, but with many families keen to conceal evidence of a convict past, it was a difficult task. Today, Museum curators and family historians continue Millett’s research, aiming to identify the people and stories behind these precious mementos.

This article appeared in Allora Advertiser, 18 June 2025.