Collecting Jamestown: Part 14. A Token Like No Other (2)

The saga continues …

In 1940 Ferguson and Steward described the medalettes as “stamped with a rose crossed by a thistle and surmounted by a crown.” The reverse was oddly left blank. They were puzzled. What were they? The British Museum was consulted, and their numismatists identified the pieces as admission tickets to the King’s Touch ceremony. They dated the rose and thistle coppers to the 1630s during the reign of Charles I.

A thin copper piece believed to be an admission ticket
to the King's Touch ceremony.

These tickets are rare. None have been found in English ground. So, how did the Maryland native get a string of them? As is often the case in archeology, there were more questions than answers.

We start by considering the King’s Touch ceremony. Here, we are on familiar ground, as we have seen that faith healing was one of the chief motivations for making a pilgrimage during the medieval cult of the saints. The offering of a bent coin in return for a miraculous remedy lingered in memory long after the Reformation. This faith in miracles was also held for the English king (or queen) who ruled by divine right. In particular, it was believed that the king could cure certain ailments with an invocation to God. After all, the monarch had connections.

Edward the Confessor (1042-66) was said to be the first to “cure” one of his subjects in the eleventh century. Of note, historians have suggested that the practice originated across the channel a few generations before with Robert II of the Franks. Nonetheless, Henry II (1154-1189) is credited with developing a ceremony with all the pomp expected of a divine service whereby the king doles out miracle cures. In short, the sick were touched by the king’s hand and given a Touch Piece that protected them from relapse.

The touch pieces …

I hope you are enjoying the story. There is more to come with a few twists.