I acquired a coin/token/medal a few years ago and have been unable to identify it. Its diameter is approximately 38mm and I believe it to be a brass or bronze material. It lists a bunch of Catholic holidays on it (Whit Sunday, Trinity Sunday, Easter, Lent & Advent Sunday) plus the King's & Queen's birthdays. It also has what appears to be a "signature" of John Powell, Birmingham. The front has the claendar on it and the back has what appear to be lunar cycles. It's hard to tell because it is very worn on the reverse. Any help identifying this or feelings on its value would be appreciated. Regrettably, I did commit the cardinal sin by cleaning this coin. As much as I know better, it was black and badly pitted when I got it. I couldn't make out any of the writing or numerals. At least now most of it is legible, although its value may have been compromised. Thank you in advance. Patrick Young
Play the man, Mr. Ridley... Not that it could not have Catholic holidays on it, but it probably has Anglican -- Church of England; what we in America call "Episcoplean" -- holidays. For one thing, they will be mostly the same (except for the King and Queen's birthday) because the Church of England is an apostolic church that split off from Rome, but kept its "catholicism." This is different from evangelical churches, the Reformed, Calvinist, Presbyterian, Baptist, etc., etc. Catholics did not have the right vote in Great Britain until 1829. From 1793 they could vote in Ireland -- but not hold office. That's right: vote, but not hold office. (In fact, I am reading a biography of President John Kennedy now, written by Theodore Sorenson. I cannot describe briefly the breadth, width and depth, of anti-Catholic hysteria when Kennedy ran for office in 1960: it was right out of the Jim Crow days of the Ku Klux Klan. ... and that was 1960...) Sorry for being off track here, but coins are history you hold in your hand and the history you hold is from a time too close that we have forgotten.
Hi Patrick, and welcome to the forum. I'm not an expert on British tokens, but my understanding is that Birmingham was the source of a great many of them. The overall description of your item sounds very much as though John Powell was a Birmingham businessman or cleric, and that the token was a form of advertising. There are cardinal sins, and there are not-so-cardinal sins. Based on your description of the pre-cleaned state, your item didn't have a whole lot of value to compromise, so the old bromide "no harm, no foul" would seem to apply. Just say "I'm a baaaaaad boy" three times, and sin no more.
It's an English Calendar Medal. Wouldn't worry much about the cleaning as these were typically made of some base metal.
