110 COMMUNION TOKENS OF SOUTH-EASTERN BORDER 



date, and their tokens are to be found in every collection. But 

 it is the Scottish Presbyterian token alone that is the subject 

 of this paper. 



Tokens came into use in the Presbyterian Church almost 

 immediately after the Reformation. They are mentioned in 

 the Session Eecords of St. Andrews under date May 7th 1572.* 

 They were struck in Edinburgh by order of the Dean of Guild 

 before 1579, and were stamped on one side with his initials and 

 the date of his appointment to office. f From that time onwarda 

 they have been in constant use in the Church of Scotland, and 

 they have been adopted by the other Presbyterian churches in 

 succession. Their use has not been confined to Scotland, but 

 has extended to America and the British colonies. The 

 material used in their construction was for the most part 

 lead, but thej^ have been made also of mixed metal, brass, or 

 even of leather. Occasionally they are perforated as if they 

 had been strung upon a string. Their general appearance and 

 shape are well shown on the accompanying Plates. In old 

 times they are oftener called 'tickets' than 'tokens,' but even 

 what are called tickets were generally made of metal. In the 

 accounts of the church of Dumbarton, 1620, there is a charge 

 "for thrie pund of lead to be tickets to the communicants, 6 

 shillings." | It is clear however that they were also of card- 

 board, for in the Records of the St. Andrews kirk session, April 

 1596, we find it ordained that "the haill tikketis are to be 

 writin and subscryvit " by the clerk, and countersigned by the 

 ministers. None of these ancient cardboard 'tickets ' have 

 survived. Indeed we possess no metal tokens even that are 

 undoubtedly of the 16th century. The oldest dated Scottish 

 token is a solitary specimen of date 1648, belonging probably to 

 the parish of Crossmichael.|| The oldest in my possession is 

 dated 1667, of the parish of Lumphanan. It may well be 

 however that some of the undated tokens are much older. 

 Dating, like the stamping of the minister's initials, probably 

 indicates a step in advance of the original plan of merely 

 indicating by an initial or a contraction the name of the 



* Lee's Hist, of the Church of Scotland, I., 399. 

 t Miller's Edipburgh Dean of Guild Court, p. 20. 

 l Edgar's Old Church Life in Scotland, L, 314. 

 il Burns' Old Scottish Communion Plate, p. 458. 



