Communion Token thumbnail 1
Not currently on display at the V&A

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
  • Length: 2.8cm
  • Width: 2cm
  • Depth: 1.5mm
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 createdAugust 29, 2007
Record URL
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