Communion Token
1864 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Communion tokens were used in nonconformist churches and the Presbyterian church of Scotland to identify the bearer as an individual who understood and abided by that churches' teachings. Communion could not be taken without presenting a token. The large numbers of people who went to chapels and meeting houses in the Victorian period would not have had such tokens but attended as "Hearers" to listen to the service.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Tinned iron |
| Brief description | Communion token, tinned iron, possibly made in Edinburgh, dated 1864. |
| Physical description | Rectangular token, tinned iron with, on both sides, border of raised dots with scrolls at the corners enclosing raised text. |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions | Inscribed: on one side "TRINITY FREE CHURCH CHARLOTTE STREET,1864" on the other, "THIS DO IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME I COR XI. 24" |
| Credit line | Given by Mrs Sophia Hankinson |
| Object history | This token is thought by the donor to have belonged to her mother's grandmother Mrs Betsy McEwan (married 1848) and used in Edinburgh. She remembers Presbyterians using similar tokens in the 1960s. |
| Subject depicted | |
| Summary | Communion tokens were used in nonconformist churches and the Presbyterian church of Scotland to identify the bearer as an individual who understood and abided by that churches' teachings. Communion could not be taken without presenting a token. The large numbers of people who went to chapels and meeting houses in the Victorian period would not have had such tokens but attended as "Hearers" to listen to the service. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | M.10-2007 |
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| Record created | August 29, 2007 |
| Record URL |
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