A touch piece is a coin or medal believed to cure disease, bring good luck, influence people's behaviour, carry out a specific practical action, etc.

What most touch pieces have in common is that they have to be touched or in close physical contact for the 'power' concerned to be obtained and/or transferred. Once this is achieved, the power is assumed to be permanently present in the coin, which effectively becomes an amulet.

Cure of diseases by coins Coins which had been given at Holy Communion could be rubbed on parts of the body suffering from rheumatism and it was thought that they would effect a cure. Medallions or medalets showing the "Devil defeated" were specially minted in Britain and distributed amongst the poor in the belief that they would reduce disease and sickness.Waring, Philippa (1987). The Dictionary of Omens & Superstitions. Treasure Press. The tradition of touch pieces goes back to the time of Ancient Rome, when the Emperor Vespasian (69–79 AD) gave coins to the sick at a ceremony known as "the touching".Coins of the World. De Agostini (2000).

Many touch piece coins were treasured by the recipients and sometimes remained in the possession of families for many generations, as in the case of the "Lee Penny" obtained by Sir Simon Lockhart from the Holy Land whilst on a crusade. This coin, an Edward I groat, still held by the family, has a triangular stone of a dark red colour set into it. The coin is kept in a gold box given by Queen Victoria to General Lockhart.Leighton, John M. (1840?). Strath-Clutha or the Beauties of the Clyde. Glasgow. p. 24. It can supposedly cure rabies, haemorrhage, and various animal ailments. The coin was exempted from the Church of Scotland's prohibition on charms and was lent to the citizens of Newcastle during the reign of King Charles I to protect them from the plague. A sum of between £1,000 and £6,000 was pledged for its return.Westwood, Jennifer and Kingshill, Sophia (2009). The Lore of Scotland. A guide to Scottish Legends. London: Random House. p. 192

The legend of the Lee Penny gave rise to Sir Walter Scott's novel The Talisman. The amulet was placed in water, which was then drunk to provide the cure. No money was ever taken for its use.Coin News, April 2005. Token Publishing. . pp. 29–32. In 1629 Isobel Young, burned as a witch later that same year, sought to borrow the stone to cure cattle. The family of Lockart of Lee would not lend the stone in its silver setting; however, they gave flagons of water in which the coin had been steeped.Chambers, Robert (1885). Domestic Annals of Scotland. Edinburgh: W & R Chambers. pp. 233–234.

Healing of the King's or Queen's Evil

Persons of royal blood were thought to have the "God-given" power of healing this condition by touch, and sovereigns of England and France practised this power to cure sufferers of scrofula, meaning "Swine Evil", as it was common in pigs,Coin News, January 1999. Token Publishing. . pp. 34–35. a form of tuberculosis of the bones and lymph nodes, commonly known as the "King's or Queen's Evil"Bradley, Howard W. (1978). A Handbook of Coins of the British Isles. Robert Hale. . p. 165. or "Morbus Regius". In France it was called the Mal De Roi. William the Lion, King of Scotland is recorded in 1206 as curing a case of scrofula by his touching and blessing a child who had the ailment.Dalrymple, Sir David (1776). Annals of Scotland. London: J. Murray. pp. 300–301. Charles I touched around 100 people shortly after his coronation at Holyrood in 1633.Daniel, William S. (1852), History of The Abbey and Palace of Holyrood. Edinburgh: Duncan Anderson. p. 117. Rarely fatal, the disease was naturally given to spontaneously cure itself after lengthy periods of remission. Many miraculous cures were recorded, and failures were put down to a lack of faith in the sufferer. The original Book of Common Prayer of the Anglican Church contained this ceremony. The divine power of kings was believed to be descended from Edward the Confessor, who, according to some legends, received it from Saint Remigius.

The custom lasted from the time of Edward the Confessor until Anne's reign, although her predecessor, William III refused to believe in the tradition and did not practice the ceremony. James II and James Francis Edward Stuart, the Old Pretender, performed the ceremony. Charles Edward Stuart, the "Young Pretender", is known to have carried out the rite in 1745 at Glamis Castle during the time of his rebellion against George II and also in France after his exile. Finally, Henry Benedict Stuart, the brother of Charles, performed the ceremony until his death in 1807. All the Jacobite Stuarts produced special touch-piece medalets, with a variety of designs and inscriptions. They are found in gold, silver and even lead.Coin News, May 2005. Token Publishing. . pp. 36–38.

Robert II of France was the first to practise the ritual in the 11th century. Henry IV of France is reported as often touching and healing as many as 1,500 individuals at a time. No record survives of the first four Norman kings' attempting to cure by touching; however, there are records of Henry II of England doing so. Mary I of England performed the ceremonyRoss, Josephine (1979). The Tudors. London: Arctus. p. 118. and her half-sister, Elizabeth I, cured all "ranks and degrees". William Tooker published a book on the subject, titled Charisma; sive Donum Sanationis.

Queen Anne, amongst many others, touched the 2-year-old infant Samuel Johnson in 1712 to no effect, for although he eventually recovered, he was left badly scarred and blind in one eye.Coin News, December 2003. Token Publishing. . pp. 50–51. He wore the medal around his neck all of his life and it is now preserved in the British Museum. It was believed that if the touch piece was not worn then the condition would return. Queen Anne last performed the ceremony on 14 April 1714. George I put an end to the practice as being "too Catholic", but the kings of France continued the custom until 1825. William of MalmesburyWilliam of Malmesbury, (1815). Chronicle of the Kings of England, J. A. Giles (ed.), trans. John Sharpe. London: George Bell and Sons, 1904. describes the ceremony in his Chronicle of the Kings of England (1120) and Shakespeare describes the practice in Macbeth.

The gold Angel coins, which were first struck in Britain in 1465 and later dates, particularly of the reigns of James I and Charles I, are often found officially pierced in the centre, as illustrated in Coins of England 2001Coins of England and the United Kingdom. (2001). 36th Edition. Spink. . to be used as touch pieces. The sovereigns of the House of Stuart used the ceremony to help bolster the belief in the "Divine Right of Kings".McKay, James and Mussell, John W. (eds.) (2001). The Coin Yearbook 2001. Token Publishing. . p. 112. Charles I indeed issued Angels almost exclusively as touch pieces to the point where intact specimens are hard to come by.Sutherland, C.H.V. (1982). English Coinage 600–1900. Batsford. . P. 164. He was the first monarch to perform the ceremony in Scotland at Holyrood Palace on 18 June 1633. The size of the hole may indicate the amount of gold taken in payment by the jeweller or the mint for the work of piercing or punching and the provision of a ribbon or silk string.

The cure was usually more of a "laying on of hands" by the monarch and the Angel coin or medalet, etc., although touched by the monarch, was seen as a receipt or talisman of the potential of the monarch's healing power. Originally the king had paid for the support of the sufferer until he had recovered or died. The move to the gift of a gold coin touch piece may represent the compromise payment when the custom of "room and board" support by the king ceased. Coffee in the 18th and early 19th centuries was thought to be a relief, but not a cure for scrofula.

The Angel coin was favoured at these ceremonies because it has on the obverse an image of St. Michael slaying the Devil represented as a dragon (actually a heraldic Wyvern).Lobel, Richard; Davidson, Mark; Hailstone, Allan and Calligas, Eleni (1999). Coincraft's 1999 Standard catalogue of English and UK Coins 1066 to Date. Coincraft. . p. 153. St. Michael, especially venerated for his role as captain of the heavenly host that drove Satan out of Heaven, was also associated with the casting out of devils and thus was regarded as a guardian of the sick.Seaby, Peter (1985). The Story of British Coinage. Seaby. p. 119.

The monarch him/herself hung these touch piece amulets around the necks of sufferers. In later years Charles II only touched the medalet as he unsurprisingly disliked touching diseased people directly. He "touched" 92,107 people in the 21 years from 1661 to 1682, performing the function 8,500 times in 1682 alone.

After these coins ceased to be minted in 1634, Charles II had holed gold medalets specially produced by the mint with a similar design of good defeating evil. An example of a medalet in the British Museum has a hand descending from a cloud towards four heads, with "He touched them" around the margin, and on the other side a rose and thistle, with "And they were healed."

Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary for 13 April 1661: "To Whitehall to the Banquet House and there saw the King heale, the first time that ever I saw him do it — which he did with great gravity; and it seemed to me to be an ugly office and a simple one."Latham, Robert (ed.) (1985). The Illustrated Pepys. Extracts from the Diary. Bell & Hyman. . p. 30. John Evelyn also refers to the ceremony in his Diary on the dates of 6 July 1660 and 28 March 1684.Chamberlain, C. C. (1963). The Teach Yourself Guide to Numismatics: An A.B.C. of coins and coin collecting. English Universities Press. pp. 4, 166.

John Wain in his biography of Dr. Samuel Johnson writes that Johnson was taken by his mother as a small child to London, where after standing in a long line with many others, he was in turn subject to this ritual from Queen Anne.

Unsurprisingly the system was open to abuse and numerous attempts were made to ensure that only the deserving cases got the gold coin, because others would simply sell it.Roud, Steven (2003). The Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland. Penguin Books. p. 395.

Luck and coins

Good luck coins

In many countries it was believed that coins with holes in them would bring good luck. This belief could link to a similar superstition linked to stones or pebbles which had holes, often called "Adder Stones" and hung around the neck. Carrying a coin bearing the date of one's birth is purportedly "lucky". In Austria any coin found during a rainstorm is especially lucky, because it is said to have dropped from Heaven. European charms often require silver coins to be used, which are engraved with marks such as an "X" or are bent. These actions personalize the coin, making it uniquely special for the owner. The lucky "sixpence" is a well-known example in Great Britain.

Holy Sacrament communion coins were thought to acquire curative powers over various ailments, especially rheumatism and epilepsy. Such otherwise normal coins, which had been offered at communion, were purchased from the priest for 12 or 13 pennies. The coin was then punched through and worn around the neck of the sick person, or made into a ring.Coin News. Pub. Token. . July 2005. p. 40.