Collecting Jamestown: Part 11. Phoenix Token 2.

Here is the second half of the story: The Elizabethan Phoenix token found in Pit 1 at Jamestown.

Last week I reviewed the Jamestown find itself. It was an unexpected find, as very few have been recorded on the PAS database in the UK (see below).

Crowned Rose lead token of Elizabeth I

   Michael Mitchiner has likened the Phoenix tokens to Coronation Medals as several larger copper and pewter pieces depicting a portrait of the young queen on obverse and a phoenix rising from flames on the reverse are known. The legend on these pieces reads SOLA PHOENIX OMNIA MVNDI ET ANGLIAE GLORIA or “Alone, the Phoenix is all things: of the world and of England it is the glory.” Apparently, the Queen adopted the Phoenix as her personal device.

   The obverse on the piece pictured depicts a crowned rose flanked by E R for Elizabeth Regina. The legend reads BEATI REGINA.

   Mitchiner only pictured two of these lead tokens. He notes that they were modeled after the Coronation Medals. However, the phrasing on the lead tokens of BEATY REGINA is appropriate for a deceased Queen; as such, he suggested that the tokens were made in 1603 or thereabouts (as she died on 24 March 1602). There is debate, however, about when they were made with researchers also suggesting the 1570s and 1590s. Mysterious. If anyone has additional info, please share it.

   Also, it has been suggested that a similar token was made for Queen Mary – this is a puzzling claim. Perhaps they were referring to the more common double-headed eagle tokens -- that is another story I shall save for later.

   Of note, only three Phoenix tokens have been listed on the PAS database. All of them were found in cultivated fields, one in the Isle of Wright (SE England), another near Guildford (SE England), and one in Swindon (SW England). My piece came from Selby in Yorkshire (NW England). With these few, it is hard to pin them down geographically (south and east? about London?) -- this is the broad region where most of the Jamestown settlers came from.

In any case, I wonder who carried the piece found in Pit1? We can never know, but for sure, the piece was there, at Jamestown, where it was part of the action.