COMMUNION TOKENS OF THE BRITISH ISLES
by David Powell

Please note that those images with a brown border may be viewed in greater detail by clicking on the image. References, in the text, highlighted in blue, indicate that the token is illustrated.

1. THE REASON FOR COMMUNION TOKENS

John Calvin first recommended Communion tokens, or mereaux as they were known in France, with the intent that no unworthy person would be admitted to the communion service; one source records that they were first used by the Huguenots in 1531, another says 1560. Scotland is thought to have started using them fairly soon after this date. The Dutch are reputed to have used tokens in Amsterdam as early as 1586. England and Ireland began to use communion tokens near the end of the 16th century when authorities found it useful to know who did or did not conform to the legal for of worship of the state church.

Although the Huguenots invented them, and continued to use them until the mid 19th century, it was in the Presbyterian Churches of Scotland that communion tokens were most widely used. Many believe that there may have been a second reason for using tokens, and that was to protect communicants from betrayal by spies during periods of religious persecution. 

It would appear that in many cases, especially in Covenanting times, the tokens were retained by communicants and used by them for identification purposes in similar fashion to the use of the fish symbol by the earliest Christians in times of religious persecution in Rome and elsewhere. In a period of some fifty years ending about 1688, Covenanters were fined, jailed, exiled, tortured and violently killed, so that the showing of a token led to the acceptance of a stranger as a sympathiser and not a Government spy.

"Tokens were commonly used in Presbyterian churches in Scotland and America, from the Reformation through the early nineteenth century. In the weeks before the celebration of communion, the church's elders would visit each member and examine his or her knowledge of the faith and purity of life. Those who met with the elders' approval were given a small lead token which permitted them to receive communion. The goal was a careful protection of the Table from profanation by immoral or unfaithful people. It was part of a larger system of church discipline.

Through the acculturation of the church and the rise of liberal theology during the nineteenth century, communion tokens fell out of favour. Theologically, clergy and elders came to see communion as a means of grace rather than a reward for good behaviour. Socially, members came to see church discipline as unfashionable and judgmental." 

One could also be excluded for ignorance, as well as behaviour:

"In one parish, for example, it was decreed that such persons should be able to repeat 'the Shorter Catechism as formerly" while in another no one was to receive a token unless he or she was "weel instructit in the Belief, Lord's Prayer and Ten Commands." In other words, oral examinations were conducted.

2. PRACTICALITIES OF USE

It should be remembered that some if not most of the Scottish churches decline to administer the sacraments with the same frequency as is done down south, hoping that by doing so only very rarely, one, two or three times a year, they may make it a truly special occasion invested with a much greater reverence. The following excerpt from a Free Church member is a fairly typical description of Communion token use:

"A service of Communion is held twice or three times a year. The Communion weekend usually starts on Thursday (or in some places on Friday) with special services and a visiting preacher. Friday night used to be the 'question night' when the minister gave out a Bible text and invited the men present to speak about their own experience. This is still practised in some congregations.

In many congregations, after the Saturday night service those who hope to take Communion wait behind and receive tokens. These are small metal rectangles (of silver or pewter) bearing the words of Jesus 'This do in remembrance of me'. On the other side of the token is the name of the congregation. It was a custom, in the past, for other congregations to join in, so many people who were not known to the Elders would attend. The tokens were a way of identifying those who were members in their own Church and should be at the Lord's Table.

After the sermon, before the Communion service, there is a special talk known as 'fencing the tables'. The preacher explains the meaning of the service and tells about the type of people who should be at the Table and who shouldn't.

Those who wish to take Communion move forward during the singing of a Psalm and, after handing over their token, they sit down at tables." 

"Without the allocated emblem of approval, members were barred from the Lord's table at other congregations of the same denomination. If Christians had to guard the Lord's Table jealously and scrutinize other congregations of the same church, then what future has the church, indeed any church?" - one wonders how these cross-boundary decisions were policed in practice.

3. ATTITUDES TO USE

"It appears that the elders generally gave tokens to the vast majority of those who desired them. In one congregation, these persons were then summoned before the elders and told to appear before the congregation that very afternoon and acknowledge their sins. All who did so were publicly absolved; all who 'would not come before us or, coming, could not be induced to acknowledge their fault before the congregation, upon the Saturday preceding the communion, their names, scandals, and impenitency, were read out before the congregation and they debarred from communion; which proved such a terror that we found few of that sort.' Even "those who were given tokens were reminded through preparatory sermons that while they appeared worthy, in fact they probably were not."

"Tokens were highly revered, achieving for some the status of quasi-sacred objects, and some communicants, undoubtedly in agreement with that sentiment, tried to have tokens sealed with them in their coffins at death. Whether according to legend St. Peter would be sufficiently impressed after being slipped a metallic entrance fee to open the Pearly Gates we can only imagine. At any rate, burying owners with their tokens confirmed the hallowed status of the metallic fetish."

"A great deal of the solemnity of the Sacrament seems to have been attached to the tokens, making them objects of reverence and respect. An example of the almost superstitious awe or regard in which they were held was the tradition that the only acceptable way to dispose or old tokens was to bury them beneath the pulpit." 

"In 1727 the Ettrick Kirk-Session recorded, "The session met to distribute tokens, but finding that a horse race was to come off before Communion Sunday, forbade any member to attend, and decided to hold over the tokens till after the race." The grim invigilators wanted to preserve any member from soiling his holiness by cheering for a horse at the Ettrick race meeting with a token in his pocket."

4. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

Communion tokens were used in a number of different parts of the world but chiefly where Scottish influence made itself felt. Most if not all of the 901 ancient parishes of Scotland used them, plus many non-conformist or splinter groups which set themselves up throughout the country. Northumbria and parts of the adjoining English counties, Durham and Cumberland, behave as Scottish rather than English in their use of tokens, at least where the denominations from north of the border made themselves felt; that border was always more fluid than the authorities have described it, not surprisingly so when rival armies of each side have attempted to redraw its line so many times over the centuries. Elsewhere in England communion tokens mostly occur in ports and trading centres, where Scottish churches are likely to be have been set up for visiting seamen; e.g. Tyneside, the east coast ports, London, Southampton, Liverpool and, thanks to the Mersey Canal, Manchester. English pieces are not greatly different in style from the Scottish, insofar as there are any standards in this series.

{Dull: B.2098}

Communion tokens may lack any pictorial reference other than references to the solitary theme with which they are concerned, but they are not without their compensatory interests. They are rich in varieties of typography and, in certain parts of Scotland, ornamentation; compared with most series, they derive from a vast number of different sources. Compare, for example, the main British coinage in the century before the Norman Conquest; nearly 90 mints, in a period of nearly as many years. They were governed by central policy and had to adhere to rules regarding design, weight, timing etc; although there were individual die-engravers whose work can be distinguished by various interesting idiosyncrasies, none of those mints deviated from the norm by that much. Now imagine ten times that number of mints, swelled by the ranks of the non-conformists, all with total liberty to design and strike in their own manner. That is what happened with communion tokens! so far do the artistic practices of the different parish craftsman diverge that you will find examples of design a century ahead, or behind, the norm. 

5. SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY

Scottish ecclesiastical history is littered with feuding factions which were forever splitting and merging as theological whim led them. For a diagram of who did what when, which looks somewhat like the underground map of a major city, I can do little better here than to refer you to fig.7 of Kathleen Cory's "Tracing your Scottish Ancestry", itself taken from an earlier work known as Burleigh's chart of Scottish churches. Suffice it that apart from the established Church of Scotland, also k/a "the Kirk", the following were amongst the other main players, and were frequently the users of tokens:

1733-date: Church of the {first} Secession, also k/a the Associated Congregation of Original Seceders; now of minimal size after major splits in 1747, 1806 and 1852.
1761-1847 Relief Church, also k/a Church of the second secession.
1820-1847 United Secession Church, consisting of the middle two of four factions into which the Church of the {first} Secession had subdivided/
1847-1900 United Presbyterian Church, formed by a merger of the Relief and United Secession Churches.
1843-1900 Free Church; broke from the Kirk in 1843 under Dr. Thomas Chalmers' leadership, absorbed two other factions in 1852 and 1876 and suffered a split in 1892 when the Free Presbyterians broke away.
1900-date United Free church; formed by a merger of the United Presbyterian Church and the remnant of the Free Church in 1900, and partially absorbed back into the Kirk in 1929. The other faction remains independent.

The above is not fully exhaustive, but I do not wish to get more deeply involved in these bodies and their perennial disputes than is necessary to introduce the names of the various Churches found on the tokens.

In addition to the denominations native to Scotland, tokens were also used by the Episcopalians {the Scottish equivalent of the Church of England}, by three Methodist congregations, and by one Baptist church {in Dundee}.

There are about ninety different verses found on the tokens, according to one source, although a few {1.Cor 11:23-29} predominate. For those theologically inclined, there is some scope for analysis. Sometimes the text is written out in full, sometimes the reference alone is given, sometimes both; in the 19th century one or both are the norm, but in the 18th century they are quite rare. {Early example of full text: B.5833, Ratho.} One feature to look out for is an Old Testament reference, which exist but are very few.

Miss Cory's book also describes the parish numbering system which is widely used by the various Scottish record offices and other reference works, whereby you start from the top {Shetland 1-12 in alphabetic order, Orkney 13-33 ditto, etc.}, so that if you want such a labelling, you would do well to adopt it.

6. GENERAL REMARKS ON STYLE AND PRESERVATION

The metallic content is various, with lead {18th cent} or white metal {19th cent} being the commonest; there are other pieces in bronze, brass, iron and aluminium, and a few of even other materials beyond that. An aluminium piece dated 1900 from Tongue, Sutherland, which predates the earliest official coinage in that metal by six or seven years, attracted significant interest when offered at auction recently; alternatively, Jedburgh's bronze piece of 1816 {B.3443} could have quite easily been passed as a halfpenny. Brass is also used, albeit very rarely {B.4298}.

 

Lead and white metal are notoriously vulnerable to damp and cold. There is little which can be done to help the latter, once they have darkened and stained under adverse conditions, although brushing with a toothbrush can sometimes help where the damage is from cold alone. In the case of lead, which goes tends to go white in extreme cold {B.6148}, following up with a little beeswax polish can sometimes produce very pleasing enhancement. 

The earliest tokens consist of a parish or minister's initial alone, then graduating to provide the parish's abbreviated or later full name, the date, sometimes the minister's full name and, if relevant, that of the breakaway denomination. By the mid 19th cent. all of these would usually be present, accompanied sometimes by a table number or very rarely, a serial number. These numbers are sometimes embodied as part of the design, but often counterstruck, with varying degrees of efficiency.

There are various patterns to be observed regarding general evolution, and designs associated with either one part of the country and/or a specific denomination; but equally, one must expect these same rules to be broken because of the extent of local individuality.

The oldest known dated piece is 1648, several decades after their supposed introduction; dates are rare before 1690, and on a number of pieces, mainly 19th cent, the date of foundation rather than the date of issue appears. In my own collection, 79% of the pieces are dated. Pieces do not appear with contiguous date ranges, like coins; the norm is for a parish to purchase a batch several times throughout its history, often several decades apart. Occasionally a parish is so addicted to the style of its current pieces that it specifies a look- alike replacement, despite the fact that the design and manufacture may be a few decades or even a century behind what is currently in vogue {B.7012, Udny}. Or occasionally in front! {B.6285, Slamannan}.

Attempting to group by region, denomination or manufacturer is one of the fascinating exercises of the series; however, whilst I attempt below to pick out a few of the more easily observable examples of thematic similarities, there are many cases where small numbers of pieces can be grouped together without forming a category large enough to attract general notice. Only rarely is one helped by an engravers name, such as Crawford or Cunninghame of Glasgow {various of the Free Church stock tokens, e.g. {B.7579; sect 9, q.v} or Alexander Kirkwood of Edinburgh {B.0366, Alyth}, and where these do occur, from the mid 19th century on, they are so small that they can be very easily missed. It was clearly not thought very reverent to have makers' names appearing on communion tokens, and the success of attempts to disguise them is surprising.

The Alyth token, apart from being diamond-shaped, is also one of the relatively few which exhibits an overstrike.

Both dated and undated pieces abound, the latter predominating in later years, although there a number of pieces where the foundation date rather than the mintage date is shown, and others where both appear {B.6601, Stockwell and B.5267,Nigg}. The foundation date not uncommonly includes day and month as well as year. Pieces are also occasionally seen which chart the years of incumbency of all ministers to date {B.5011, Moyness}

7. CHRONOLOGY: THE EARLY PERIOD


The earliest pieces are cut fragments of lead or occasionally tin, of possibly irregular shape; bearing merely a single initial, the meaning of which has to be deduced from the location of the find. Fortunately, because the pieces never have cause to travel much outside their place of issue, the latter is usually known. They were probably manufactured, in many cases, by the local blacksmith; e.g. {B.0026, New Deer, Aberdeenshire}

By about 1700-1720, here the local craftsman had the ability, a limited design starts to appear, usually in the form of beading; however, simple initials remain the norm for much of the early part of the 18th cent. If the second latter of a pair is K, this often stands for Kirk, although it could alternatively be the initial of the minister's surname; thus, for any initial {e.g. C} there could be a lot of pieces with similar initials {e.g. CK} which, although they appear to be related superficially, have in fact nothing more in common than that their parish names begin with the same letter.

Likewise beware of the first initial M, which may or may not stand for Minister, for the same reasons. It is not unknown for numismatic dealers to get communion and hop tokens mixed e.g. {B.0031 from Auchterhouse, in my own experience}; so if Burzinski cannot find your piece for you take Henderson off your bookshelf, or vice versa. Especially when it comes to M and K. As a further example of inter-series confusion, I have also had the unusually chunky piece from Glencairn, Dumfriesshire {B.2903}, offered to me as a weight.

Most early pieces are small, and quite often uniface; where the parish name is attempted, it often has to be abbreviated to three or four letters. A number of the earlier tokens have minister's initials and nothing else, which has led some observers to the opinion that in some cases the minister took his pieces with him when he moved on. Certainly a significant number marked the beginning of their incumbency in the same way that a monarch does his reign, with an issue of pieces bearing his initials or name, but in other parishes they were struck simply as need arose.

As the early 17th century develops, the parish name sometimes starts expanding to several letters; rarely, to its full length {selection of 1720s pieces}. Once the minister's initials start appearing, there are reference works who can help you identify most of them, even if they are not known from local folklore:

Fasti Ecclesiae Scotianae {7 vols}
History of the Congregations of the United Presbyterian Church, 1733-1900
Fasti of United Free Church of Scotland, 1900-1929

Information again courtesy of Miss Cory's book. The first of these, referring to the Kirk and listing all ministers within chronological order within alphabetic order of parish, is available in London at the Society of Genealogists. No that you will probably need to use it all that much; Burzinski has got there before you. Many ministers commissioned a consignment of pieces upon their arrival in post, but that is by no means invariable.

Gradually during the fifty to seventy years which preceded the great Chalmers breakaway of 1843 {the commonest year by far to find depicted}, the archetypal cut rectangle and oval types of the mid-19th century evolved; however, there a number of tales here to tell, in terms of individual areas and denomination, which will be related below.

Typical mid-19th century pieces:

B.3034   B.3656
B.3347   B.0697

8. GEOGRAPHIC REGIONALISMS

Patterns in the early years are difficult to discern, but can be found. One example is the Fifeshire small rectangle, in existence very soon after 1700: rectangular rim both sides, silvery appearance suggesting above-average metal quality; obv.parish name or abbreviation above, date below, rev. "M" over minister's initials. Typical examples are {B.1553, Collessie} and {B.2577, Flisk}; {B.1931, Dennino} is an interesting later development.

By the mid-1770s kirks in the Glasgow neighbourhood and the south-west were developing a distinctive type: about 21mm square, with two rings inside, between which verbiage {typically the name of the parish} could be accommodated. The outer ring went to the edge of the piece, and either or both might be beaded {e.g. Rutherglen 1782:B.6094}. In the centre of the inner ring a variety of details appeared; perhaps the city arms, a date, or the minister's initials, according to inclination. As time wore on both the verbiage and the angles were well supplied with ornamentation, of a typically floral nature, which made the pieces quite attractive {e.g. Sandyford 1836: B.6152}. In the 1830s there was something of a move to elongate this basic concept into a cut rectangle containing two ovals, the latter not now reaching to the edge {St. Matthews Glasgow 1839: B.6504}, whilst one occasional variation on the theme was to utilise this extra space with radiating lines.

 

Upright types have a greater tendency to come from Edinburgh, nearby Leith, or Perth. The Edinburgh and Leith pieces typically have a ring round the outside of an normally-shaped oval or cut rectangle, inside which might be a cross, a table number or a text {B.3311, B.6359}. City arms are also an occasional choice of design for all the larger locations. Some of Perth's pieces are highly individualistic, however, and feature such unlikely designs as the double- headed eagle.

 

 

 

The Aberdeen area has a reputation for robust, down-to-earth, matter-of-fact leaden squares; good solid pieces, not all of the same size, stating the bare facts of parish name and minister's initials without ornamentation. Examples are Nigg {B.4004}, Nairn {B.5164}, Newhills {B.5262}, Aberdeen South {B.6388}, and the Mariners' Church in Aberdeen {B.4628}. 

   

An occasional design, typically of the 1790s, involves the use of scrollwork, as an attractive often low-key background design; examples are  {B.1075, Buncle-Preston, Berwickshire} and  {B.3225, Houghton & Kilellan, Renfrewshire}. It is obviously quite southerly, but I have not been able to pin it to an area as yet.

 

 

There are other less obvious groups to be discerned, perhaps associated with more rural areas; for example, there is a family of rather small but dumpy white metal pieces, sometimes cut rectangle and sometimes round, which are usually dated c.1829-1843 and almost always come from parishes in or very near Dumfriesshire {B.2111, B.4991, B.6101, B.6934}.

 

 

 

 

English pieces tend to mildly individualistic, especially down south, but not exceptionally so {e.g. London: B.5168, B.5911 and Southampton: B6351}.

 

 

   

The United Assoc.Cong. {of Original Seceders} had a liking for oval pieces, rather narrow top to bottom, which between the two sides contain the denomination, placename, minister and/or date. These typically occupy two or three lines on each side, occasionally only one, and are totally devoid of ornamentation. Those of the 1790-1810 period typically have a tall, thin and occasionally italic script; those after about 1810 tend to have a thicker script, albeit seriffed {B.3694, B.3861}. They also tend to prefix the minister's name by "Mr.".

 

By about 1830 the text tends to replace the minister's name, and the text is much squatter {B.5567, B.7011}. After 1852 they merge with the Relief Church to become the United Presbyterians and continue the same lettering.

 

 

Wider ovals of the same early 19th century period tend to be Kirk pieces {B.3706, B.3832}.

 

 

 

The Free Church was quite varied regarding the finer points of design, although conservatively adhering to the two basic shapes of oval and cut rectangle. The latter was undoubtedly its favourite, and on it made frequent use of one or other of two types of standard obverse; the burning bush, and a picture of a church. There was also a standard reverse, depicting the quote "This do in remembrance of Me: 1 Cor 11.24", which when paired with the above, as it often was, produced an anonymous stock token which could be purchased and used by any church of the denomination. Some preferred to do this, rather than buy their own individualised supply.

10. TABLE AND SERIAL NUMBERS

Larger churches often served communion at two or more tables, and used the tokens to administrate who used which; i.e. to ensure an equal division between the servers, to speed things up and prevent crowding, in addition to purely defining eligibility. It is possible in some cases to find most of a church's surviving tokens as a hoard, in which case a token for each table can be procured. Few people collect in this manner, in the same way that few pay overmuch attention to the die numbers on Victorian shillings; most simply content themselves with one specimen of whatever die number comes to hand, with the result the maximum table number remains unknown and unrecorded for the majority of churches. The number of tables is often four or six, occasionally eight or ten; double figure numbers are rare {ex. Auchterarder, B.0582}. The earliest table numbers, are usually counterstruck on the back of uniface pieces, and can be found by about the 1780s {B.2214, B.4496}; by the second quarter of the 19th century they are often an integral part of the design, although counterstriking is often still employed in preference. In the sample represented by my own collection, 14% have table numbers.

One relative scarcity to look out for is the table number expressed in Roman numerals {e.g.Mearns in 1849, B.4706}, for which there are only a handful of parishes.

 

 

Very occasionally, much larger numbers, running perhaps up to several hundreds or even a thousand or two, are seen; design as per table numbers, but clearly a very different meaning. The highest I have yet seen pictured is 1970, from Edinburgh St.Cuthberts {B.6453} . There are only a minute handful of these series, all from big city churches, and all individually, albeit neatly, overstruck. It would appear that these churches opted for a different system of administration, whereby every member had his own serially-numbered token. One of the reasons for the replacement of tokens by cards, apart from cost, was that the latter could be more easily marked with an individual identity.

 

The 1938 piece from Fairmilehead {sect.13 below} extended this serial number system in an exceptional manner, by numbering within initial letter of surname; Burzinski quotes the example "66A". I also now have an example from Partick West Presbyterian {B.5526}, probably somewhat earlier, bearing the similar inscription "C50"

The Methodist George Whitefield had seventeen tables of communicants after one of his revival services at Cambuslang in 1725, but that was before the table number, largely a 19th century innovation, featured. A case was noted in Perthshire in 1791, where 29 tables were used to serve 2361 communicants.

11. PICTORIAL SUBJECT MATTER.

This is obviously very limited, but not so much as one might expect, especially in the 19th century. There is an attractive variety of church buildings {various shown}; likewise city arms {Glasgow, Edinburgh shown}

The communion utensils feature from time to time {e.g. B.1694, B.4440, B.6453}, with or without the table on which the meal is served, and in one exceptionally early case, the Dalrymple, Ayrshire piece of 1742, the result is reminiscent of an a Jewish coin of bible times {B.1868}. On another highly unusual piece, undated but probably c.1710 from Kilwinning, Ayrshire {B.7466}, a vine appears amidst a square border or surrounding words.

The cross appears but occasionally in pictorial form, usually on Edinburgh and Perth pieces, but "+" is occasionally smuggled in amongst the letters on 18th century pieces. The burning bush is highly common, particularly but not exclusively on stock tokens.

 

12. IDIOSYNCRATIC SHAPES AND DESIGNS

   

Like the 17th century token series, there are a number of pieces which stand out by way of being of odd shape or design; octagons are not that rare {mainly 18th century; e.g. South Knapdale, Argyll: B.6306}, and a number of pieces are either heart shaped or depict hearts {e.g. Etal, Northumberland in 1724: B.2467 and Grange, Banffs: B.2946; or the Haddington goat of 1812, B.7572, where the heart is actually the shape of the town's coat of arms}. Alyth's diamond has already been referred to. As with the 17th century tokens, all these tend to attract a slight premium. There are also the rather odd "love" tokens, such as illustrated by the 1791 piece from Cawder, in Nairnshire {B.1201}.

   

Not paralleled in the 17th century are the six-pointed star-shaped tokens deriving from a few churches in Edinburgh and Perthshire, e.g. Lady Glenorchy's chapel {B.4103}, whilst the 1855 piece from Alvah, Banffs {B.0360} feels more like a pass from the railway or mining industries. Similarly, the obverse of the 1831 piece from Kirriemuir, Angus {B.3929} could pass as a contemporary hop token by virtue of its design. Another irregular shape is the inverted trefoil from Strathy, Sutherland {B.6308}. 

 

The fairly common piece from Oathlaw, Angus {B.7470} has the thickness and rim of a button.

The cut rectangle or lozenge which became so popular in the 1840s began not many years earlier, perhaps 1830-ish, and from 1850 became also one of the most favoured shapes for apothecaries' weights, following the series begun by W.& T.Avery in September that year and continued up to very modern times.

 

 

13. THE END OF COMMUNION TOKENS

Communion tokens were used in the Presbyterian Churches of Scotland until World War I", says one Internet site. Many churches apparently moved to using cards for the same purpose, the transition dates being as early as 1860 at North Shields, but for the most part being very late 19th cent or early 20th; the dates 1894 recorded for the last use of tokens at Torthorwald, Dumfriesshire, 1900 for Bonkle, Lanarkshire and 1904 for Arroquhar,Dunbartonshire are probably more typical. There are not so many tokens recorded for the later years of the 19th cent, after about 1870, and those that there are have a tendency to become slightly more modern and individualistic in design. The popular cut rectangle shape continues, but after about 1860 tends to be squarer than formerly, the top to bottom dimension being increased. Occasional commemorative issues make their appearance, typically for centenaries of their church's foundation; e.g. for Kettle UPC, Fife in 1878 {B.3626} and South Leith in 1909 {B.6365}. After WW1 almost all pieces are of this type; however, I have seen a piece dated 1938 from Fairmilehead, near Edinburgh, very much in 1860s large cut rectangle style {B.2497}. A few of the commemoratives are very modern. Whether these were used for their original purpose, or merely for momentos, I do not know. The Galashiels piece B.2699, is a particularly attractive example.

I note from the Internet that in 2000 a Presbyterian church official from New Zealand, charged with the task of setting up an affiliated congregation in Singapore, was contemplating bringing a supply of tokens with him from Down Under; so, perhaps the practice is not totally dead yet. Indeed, it would appear that there are a few people, a very small conservative minority, who would like to reintroduce it.

14. LITERATURE.

Lester Burzinski's 1999 work, "Communion Tokens of the World" is the first extensively illustrated book on the series and is rapidly becoming the standard reference work, taking over from O.D.Creswell's 1985 "Comprehensive Directory of World Communion Tokens"; apart from the one defect of not having a full cross-referencing concordance to the latter, it is highly thought of.

REFERENCES

Most of the anecdotes of sections 1,2,3,12 derive from Internet extracts, written by church officials, members or those interested in ecclesiastical history.

L.M.Burzinski: Communion Tokens of the World {"B.nnnn" references above}
K.B.Cory: Tracing your Scottish Ancestry