Very nice Victorian valentine c. 1870 printed on green paper, a tell-tale shade of arsenic dye with gold metallic ink. There is a diecut on the front, a message printed in red on the inside and the price (5 cents!) written in pencil on the back. Refer to photos for size and condition: Very good. Some breakage at the bottom of the spine, shown.

The Winterthur Museum's "Poison Book Project" suggests keeping books & ephemera that may contain arsenic in special sleeves or containers, handling them with gloves, and washing hands afterwards. They are never clear on what the actual hazard of handling these materials is, if any. For what it's worth, I have numerous Victorian books in an arsenic dyed binding and I've never experienced any adverse consequences. Many other Victorian dyes used toxic chemicals, too, but for some reason we only talk about green. Make of all this what you will! The idea of a possibly "toxic" valentine was too good to resist.