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Communion token

Communion token

  • Place of origin:

    Edinburgh, Scotland (possibly, made)

  • Date:

    1864 (made)

  • Artist/Maker:

    unknown (production)

  • Materials and Techniques:

    Tinned iron

  • Credit Line:

    Given by Mrs Sophia Hankinson

  • Museum number:

    M.10-2007

  • Gallery location:

    In Storage

  • Download image

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.

Physical description

Rectangular token, tinned iron with, on both sides, border of raised dots with scrolls at the corners enclosing raised text.

Place of Origin

Edinburgh, Scotland (possibly, made)

Date

1864 (made)

Artist/maker

unknown (production)

Materials and Techniques

Tinned iron

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"

Dimensions

Length: 2.8 cm, Width: 2 cm, Depth: 1.5 mm

Object history note

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.

Descriptive line

Communion token, tinned iron, possibly made in Edinburgh, dated 1864.

Materials

Iron; Tin

Techniques

Tinning

Subjects depicted

Scroll-work

Categories

Metalwork; Religion; Christianity

Collection code

MET

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Qr_O138791
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