Communion Tokens. 57 



arises, how conies it so few of these old Sacramental passports 



are to be found ^ In the COLDINGHAM Session Records, 19th 



July, 1696, it is " reputed by the minister and J. Smith, elder, 



that they had agreed with Joseph Foster, plummer, to make 1000 



tickets to be cast in a mould for the use of the Church the letters 



to be first syllable of this parish." A few out of such a hoard 



were almost certain to survive, but where are the thousand } The 



answer to our query is manifold. Communion Tokens having 



become in the hands of the Church instruments of discipline, a 



peculiar, an almost superstitious sanctity attached to them in the 



mind of the people two and a half centuries ago. They were 



carried about from place to place, and at certain periods were 



vouchers sufficient to obtain the sacrament in different parishes. 



Thus many tokens migrated and failed to find their way back. So 



\-enerated, too, was the token that church members at their 



decease were wont to have their tokens interred with them. This 



must account for the disappearance of a few more. But the main 



reason no doubt is that the older pieces went into the melting-pot 



as lead, towards the casting of the new issues. Diminished as 



they must have been through migrations, burials, and the habit of 



non-communicating members neglecting to return them, the older 



tokens when melted down invariably required a fresh supply of 



metal added to make up the necessary number. We see an 



instance of this in the Holywood Session Records, 4th August, 



1737, quoted in full in Chapter V. (page 93). The same is 



implied in the minute at Rattray, 1st September, 1689 — 



" Abraham Low in Cowper Grange, for making the Communion 



tickets and furnishing some lead to them lib. 03: 00: 00." For 



many tokens, therefore, migration would simply mean a change of 



melting-pot and a mingling of their substance with that of 



strangers. Notwithstanding all such hazards, many interesting 



pieces are still to be had. Some owe their survival to migration, 



others to circumstances that can never be traced. Many have 



escaped owing to their having been neglected, while more, if not 



most, of the tokens found on collectors' trays are there because 



of their late and continuous use. Indeed, it must be said that 



for collectors interest is mainly derived from the fact that so 



many ancient pieces are still procurable. Facile princeps in 



interest, and therefore among the most difficult to procure, are 



