Communion tokens were commonly used in Presbyterian and Reformed churches because their use was promoted by John Calvin and other reformers. In a letter to his mentor, Guillaume Farel, written from Strasbourg, March 29, 1540, Calvin commented concerning the Lord’s Supper that,
On Easter-day, when I gave out the invitation that we were to celebrate the Supper on next Lord’s day, I announced, at the same time, that no one would be admitted to the table of the Lord by me, who had not beforehand presented himself for examination.
Calvin’s use of “Easter-day” may have been a casual conveniece for Farel to understand the context, or does it indicate that he was not averse to the ecclesiastical calendar at this early point in his ministry? Regardless, he was concerned that those coming to the Supper would partake of the elements in a worthy manner as determined through examination. Currently, for example, the Presbyterian Church in America allows not only members of the congregation but anyone in attendance who is in good standing with an evangelical church to partake of the Lord’s Supper. The burden of worthiness is upon partakers from other evangelical churches and members of the congregation determine their own worthiness as well unless they have been separated from the Lord’s table through church discipline.
Mention of the use of tokens, the French méreaux, is found in the records of the Council of Geneva. The promoters of their use were Calvin and Peter Viret. These reformers appeared before the Small Council, January 30, 1560, and expressed their desire that the méreaux be used to prohibit desecration of the Lord’s Supper by unworthy communicants. Those wanting to partake of the elements would have to possess a token for presentation to the minister to prove their worthiness in the spirit of 1 Corinthians 11:27. However, Calvin and Viret’s proposal was not adopted. Calvin went on in an undated letter, circa 1561, to again appeal for the use of the méreaux. The Council of Geneva would not adopt the practice. Even though the use of tokens was not adopted in Geneva, by 1560 the Huguenots of France and the Presbyterians in Scotland were using tokens.
As the years passed, the communion token became a part of Reformed and Presbyterian Lord’s Supper practice. Those seeking to take the Lord’s Supper would be interviewed by the elders and if found worthy they would be given a token. So, when the communicant went to be served the elements in the service the token was given to the administering minister or elder. Historically churches often had literal fences around the area where the Supper was served and a gate through which the communicant passed once the token was given. When Scots and Scots-Irish Presbyterians emigrated to America they took the use of communion tokens with them. The tokens pictured here are all from Scotland. Colonial American tokens are rare because they were often made of less durable materials such as paper, ceramic, or wood. When the colonies were under British rule lead was strictly controlled because it could be made into shot, thus Presbyterians were forced to be creative. The use of tokens in the United States came to an end for Presbyterians by the end of the nineteenth century but some continued the practice until well into the twentieth.
Both sides of each token are shown side by side. The size of each of the three tokens is such that it would fit within a rectangle 1 inch high by 1 1/4 inches wide. The term “white metal” is a generic term for any of a variety of alloys containing high percentages of lead or tin; “pewter” is an alloy of tin and lead, or of tin, lead, and brass. The picture of tokens is by the author.
Top: White Metal, left, “Monzie 1843,” right, “Free Church of Scotland.”
Middle: Pewter, left, “Rev. Charles Miller Ord. 5 Oct. 1844” [perimeter], “UPC West Dunse” [center], right, “This do in remembrance of me. But let a man examine himself.”
Bottom: White Metal, left, “Let a man examine himself, 1 Cor. XI.28,” right, “Free Church of Scotland 1843.”
Barry Waugh
Notes—The header shows the city of Geneva circa 1700-1740 as from Wikimedia-Commons, 10-29-2024. Selected Works of John Calvin, Tracts and Letters, edited by Henry Beveridge and Jules Bonnet, vol. 7, Letters, Part 4, 1559-1564, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983. William Monter, Calvin’s Geneva, New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1967. “Mélanges: Le Méreau dans Les Eglises Réformées de France,” Bulletin de la Société de L’Histoire du Protestantisme Français 37 (1888). Communion Tokens, Their Origin, History, and Use, by Mary McWhorter Tenney and published by Zondervan, 1936. They were not consulted for this article, but there are also catalogs of communion tokens much like rare coin catalogs, for example, Communion Tokens of the United States of America, by Autence A. Bason, which was apparently self published.