Here is the second half of the Introductory Chapter of the upcoming Book: Bent, Holed, & Folded: Coin Talismans for protection against misfortune and witchcraft in Colonial Jamestown.
The pictures and endnotes are not included here -- but I added a cool picture of a talismanic coin from Jamestown that appears in another chapter.
I hope this intro whets your thirst for the topic ... that said, if you like coins, magic, and witchcraft, you will enjoy this book!
... At this point, I should remind readers of the difference between primary and secondary uses of coins. We are all familiar with their primary use as money. To the spender, a coin was nothing more than stamped bullion worth what could be bought. In this guise, a penny could be confused with a loaf of sweet bread.
The pictures and endnotes are not included here -- but I added a cool picture of a talismanic coin from Jamestown that appears in another chapter.
I hope this intro whets your thirst for the topic ... that said, if you like coins, magic, and witchcraft, you will enjoy this book!
... At this point, I should remind readers of the difference between primary and secondary uses of coins. We are all familiar with their primary use as money. To the spender, a coin was nothing more than stamped bullion worth what could be bought. In this guise, a penny could be confused with a loaf of sweet bread.
Alternatively,
some coins were removed from circulation and used for magical purposes. No longer
money, these pieces were imbued with extraordinary significance. Hence, a coin
became a talisman that could summon supernatural forces. In this guise, a penny
was much more than a loaf.
But what powers
were ascribed to talismanic coins? I’m sure you have heard that a copper piece
nailed to a rafter could fend off wind, hail, and lightning. And when you step
out after dark, coins worn as amulets could protect you from demons that hover
in the mist. How about the old adage to carry a crooked sixpence so as to bring
good fortune in the marketplace?
All
of these pieces were marked to signify their secondary use. Some coins were
bent. Others were holed and worn about the neck. Sometimes a coin was bent and holed. More elaborately, a coin
might be rolled or folded in a specific fashion.
These
are just a few of the ways that coins have been marked as talismans. Here, I
define talisman broadly as an object
(not necessarily a coin) that can protect a person from harm and/or provide special
opportunities in life. The word itself is derived from the Arabic Talsam and Greek Telesma, translated to mean: “I complete or perform a rite.”
More specifically,
amulets are considered to be
talismans that are protective against evil forces. Some are known as “devil
chasers.” Adding to our lexicon, the term charm
is used to denote a rite or the object associated with it. However, if a charm
is used to undo or “throw back” a rite (for example, to reverse a bewitching),
it is called a counter-charm. Despite
scholarly objections, I have found that most folks use the terms talisman,
amulet, and charm interchangeably.
We have yet to
define magic. Simply put, magic involves the manipulation of occult forces via
a rite to produce a desired outcome. Healing and protection are the chief goals
of magic, as we want to be healthy and safe above all else. In academic circles,
protective magic is described as apotropaic.
Other popular ways to use magic include finding lost objects, identifying
evildoers, and foretelling the future.
There are two
general laws that characterize magical properties.3 The first is the
law of similarity. “Like produces
like,” the saying goes. Hence, a coin depicting the image of a king carries the
power of the king. This is known as image magic. The second is the law of contagion. Objects that have been
in contact with each other continue to act on each other at a distance. In this
way, a coin touched by a king carries the power of the king.
These laws defy
our modern sensibilities, but similarity and contagion are everywhere. For
example, we venerate images of Elvis Presley. He is The King, and we want a piece of him. In fact, many of us would
love to place an Elvis cookie jar on our kitchen counter. This is akin to image
magic.
But also, look
how we venerate anything he touched. In fact, many of us would love to hang his
silk shirt in our closet, not to wear, but to have a piece of him. This is akin
to contagion magic. Either way, we are not surprised when otherwise rational
folks pay large dollars for The King.
As we shall see, these laws of magic were embraced during post-medieval times.
Now that we have
some ideas about talismans and magic, we are off to Jamestown. This was the
first permanent English settlement in America. At first landing, they were but
104 souls, alone on an unfamiliar continent and surrounded by natives who did
not like the intrusion. Most of the colonists died within a few months. But
they kept coming and the settlement survived.
The Jamestown settlers left behind a motley
assortment of coins. Several were acutely bent. Others were holed. A sixpence
was fashioned into a pendant. Another piece was rolled into a bead. These were
deliberate actions for sure, but for what purpose?