The E-Sylum:  Volume 8, Number 13, March 27, 2005, Article 27

FEATURED WEB PAGE

This week's featured web page is about a communion token
first issued in 1800 by the First (Scots) Presbyterian Church
of Charleston, South Carolina.

"Now, let#39;s take another look at the token itself. Measuring
28mm, and made from silver, it was made in England in the year
1800. According to Autence A. Bason, author of Communion
Tokens of the United States, 300 specimens were ordered by
the church in that year. An additional order of 500 pewter tokens
was made at some later point in time. Although resembling the
silver tokens in having a communion table on one side and a
“burning bush” on the other, the pewter tokens were somewhat
different in substance, being die struck, not hand-engraved. They
were manufactured by Robert Lovett, prominent diesinker in
New York City, and were meant to be used by the black members
of the congregation. Mrs. Bason states in her book that “during
the Civil War the valuable silver communion service of the church
was sent to Columbia, S.C. for safe keeping and the communion
tokens were included. Later, a column of Union soldiers visited
the city and the vessels and tokens were taken. The soldiers,
thinking they were some sort of Confederate money, took the
tokens.” Bason goes on to state that 14 specimens of the silver
token were known, but that count has probably increased to
20 or so since the printing of her book. The pewter tokens are
much scarcer, with only three or four presently known."
Featured Web Site

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

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