Collecting Jamestown: Part 15. A Token Like No Other (3).

This morning I continue with the "King's Touch" tokens and their mysterious connections to Jamestown and other native and colonial Virginia sites. 

The text is a draft of a book chapter I am working on. I pick up the trail were we left at the beginning of February.

Out of the Ground at Jamestown. What is it?

  

The Touch Pieces were made of gold and were valuable. The bestowal was akin to giving a penny in alms to the poor, as this represented a daily wage. In contrast, the gold Touch Pieces were initially valued at six shillings and eight pence (128 pence in all); this was the fee charged by physicians. Like the silver penny, the Touch Piece was proportional in value to the need that it satisfied.

The gold Angel coin, introduced in 1470, was chosen for use in the touch ceremony. It was named for the obverse depiction of Michael the Archangel slaying the evil dragon. In this guise, I suppose the dragon was the illness. The reverse showed the royal ship of state, representing the monarchy. The Angel was holed and strung with a white ribbon. As such, we have the most direct affirmation for the talismanic use of an English coin. In addition, it use was sanctioned by the head of the Anglican Church (the King) – quite ironic, don’t you think?

In order to reduce fraudulent claims, the king’s surgeon screened the applicants to insure that each complaint of illness was legitimate. For those deemed worthy, a copper token was provided as a ticket of admission to the divine service. When the use of tickets was initiated is not known, but records from the Tower Mint indicate that an order to produce copper tickets was recorded in 1635. Perhaps this is why the British Museum interpreted Ferguson’s find as those of Charles I.

       There are references of King’s Touch tickets having been produced on contract by the Freemasons before 1635, but none of these pieces have been identified. One candidate is a copper token described in the 1916 edition of the British Journal of Numismatics. The piece shows a hand from heaven hovering over four persons on the obverse, whereas the reverse depicts the linking of a rose and thistle linked beneath a crown. This reverse design is similar to the pieces found at Piscataway.   

Now that March is nearly here, the JT digging season will be starting up again. I think they have been digging all winter inside the 1907 church. For the rest of us, it will be time to visit again.