admission-ticket(?)
- Museum number
- G3,EM.335
- Description
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Copper alloy admission ticket? with a plain edge. (whole)
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A three-masted ship in sail to the left. Legend inscription all around with the beginning separated from the end by a six-pointed star at the bottom. Toothed border all around just inside outside rim. (obverse)
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St. Micheal piercing a dragon with his spear. Legend inscription all around with the beginning separated from the end by a six-pointed star at the bottom. Toothed border all around just inside outside rim. (reverse)
- Dimensions
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Diameter: 29.50 millimetres
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Weight: 10.880 grammes
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- According to Peck catalogue "these pieces have the same designs and legends as the gold touch-pieces of Charles II; in fact the St. Micheal design is actually from the same punch as used for the earlier (i.e. larger) touchpiece (pl.49.D). It is obvious, therefore, that they were issued in connexion with the touching ceremony and have nothing to do with the coinage. Miss Helen Farqhur.." footnote from the same source gives the source of her words as 'Royal Charities', part ii, BNJ, vol.13, pp.122-5. "concluded, very convincingly that these pieces were given to bona fide applicants as passes or admission tickets to the ceremony, and that they were made in different metals or in a combination of metals, as a safeguard against imposters who might otherwise have gained admission with a forged pass, merely to gain the gold. The same writer produced ample evidence that passes were ordered and used in the reign of Charles I, and although the actual order for making similar pieces of Charles II could not be traced, she was able to quote documents proving that admission tickets were definately used in this reign.
Thus in the official regulations relating to the touching, it was ordered amongst other things: 'That the Serjeant Surgion in waiting doe give Ticketts be delivered by the Serjeant Surgion but to the proper person of his or her that hath the Evill only.'
Specimens are occasional found pierced: a probably explanation for this is that passes were sometimes give away by the original recipients to friends who pierced and wore them in the hope of deriving at least some of the benefit attributed to the actual touching. Examples also occur with a notch on the border, usually on both sides, one above the angel's head, the other between the B and FR. Miss Farquhar suggested that as no admission tickets appear to have made during the following reign, these notches probably indicate pieces which were returned to the Mint for reissue by James II, thereby saving the expense of making a new obverse die. As the gold touchepieces were first issued under a Royal Warrant, dated 25 February 1664/5, it is probable that these tickets were also struck at about the same time.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1825
- Department
- Money and Medals
- Registration number
- G3,EM.335
- C&M catalogue number
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BC (Peck 1970) (496)