English: A gold touch-piece of James II (1685-88). Such pieces formed part of the ceremony of 'touching for the King's Evil' (scrofula, believed to be cured by the monarch's touch); patients received a memento in the form of a 'touch-piece', suspended on a white ribbon. The early Stuart monarchs (James I, Charles I) used gold coins (angels), pierced to take a ribbon. After the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, special non-monetary gold pieces were made for the ceremony.
Depicted place
(County of findspot) Wrexham
Date
between 1685 and 1688
date QS:P571,+1685-00-00T00:00:00Z/8,P1319,+1685-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1326,+1688-00-00T00:00:00Z/9
Accession number
FindID: 245112 Old ref: NMGW-DDBBF5 Filename: touch-piece ed.JPG
Credit line
The Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) is a voluntary programme run by the United Kingdom government to record the increasing numbers of small finds of archaeological interest found by members of the public. The scheme started in 1997 and now covers most of England and Wales. Finds are published at https://finds.org.uk
Attribution: The Portable Antiquities Scheme/ The Trustees of the British Museum
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