Headcanon (theory?): Jacob's shilling necklace was actually Cecily's
It feels like there's always been a bit of a mystery to why Jacob wears the shilling necklace, ranging from it could just be a unique design choice or Jacob keeping a lucky coin on him since he has a tendency to try his luck. It's always felt like it's held some sort of significance - at least to me? Jacob's seen wearing the necklace even before he and Evie head to London, when he's still wearing his Simply Jacob outfit (his starter-mon outfit, if you will). A physical copy of the necklace was also included for anyone who pre-ordered Syndicate.
So it's kind of bumbled around in my head, until I discovered victorian love tokens while doing some research and it's like the dots have connected.
For anyone who doesn't know, like I didn't, love tokens were coins that were handcarved by a family member, a suitor to be, or friends, and given to a recipient to convey feelings. They weren't just romantic! They have a long history, but the victorians were crazy for them and love tokens became a pretty popular physical embodiment of ones love for another person. (Especially so, because they were usually made using coins - and the British already had a tradition of keeping lucky coins in their pocket? Fun!)
Most often they would be carved with names and dates, words to describe the relationship between the two, etc. In rarer cases (or at least considered rare to find for collectors of today), they would be carved with pictures that would be symbolically important for the giver and recipient.
I bring this up because for anyone who was lucky enough to receive an actual Jacob Pendant from ubisoft, or just bought of a replica off like... etsy or something, you know that Jacob's pendant actually has the Assassin symbol carved onto it.
In my opinion, this definitely makes the shilling a token of some sort! It could possibly be a token carried by all English Assassins, a way to recognize one another, but I like to believe that it may have been a romantic gift from Ethan to Cecily. After all, they were both two VERY devoted Assassins who were considered to have come the closest to freeing London from Templar rule before Henry, Jacob, and Evie. Whatever reason for the token, we can at least assume the token was Cecily's!
How do we know it's Cecily's? How it's meant to be worn!
Since tokens were made out of coins, which were in turn made out of semi precious metals, tokens could be turned into jewelry. It was common for women to wear them as bracelets, pendents, necklaces, and earrings. Men would wear them as cufflinks and put them on watch chains.
Jacob's shilling pendant is well... a pendant. It's traditionally womens jewelry (though I don't think Jacob could care any less about the way jewelry is meant to be worn in relation to gender).
So yeah! Even if I'm connecting dots that may not quite be there, the thought of Jacob having something of Cecily's is... nice. Especially since... Ethan and Jacob did not have uh, the best of relationships.
Anyways, thanks for reading my silly lil headcanon and have a nice day!
