What it is about is what is called a Broken Token. When sailors went away often for a long time, months or even years, they could be quite changed after a long voyage. They may have been hard to recognize. No DNA then. Likewise their woman could change or be tempted to hang out with another man. So the custom was to break a token, mostly a coin, in to two halves, and each person would keep a piece;as a token of their relationship and so that when they met the two pieces coulod fit together and make one coin. The sexual symbolism is about fitting together again perfectly in harmony..
What it is about is what is called a Broken Token. When sailors went away often for a long time, months or even years, they could be quite changed after a long voyage. They may have been hard to recognize. No DNA then. Likewise their woman could change or be tempted to hang out with another man. So the custom was to break a token, mostly a coin, in to two halves, and each person would keep a piece;as a token of their relationship and so that when they met the two pieces coulod fit together and make one coin. The sexual symbolism is about fitting together again perfectly in harmony..