Belgium (Liège, Chapter of St. Lambert): copper méreau or communion token; memento mori, 1686

Discussion in 'World Coins' started by lordmarcovan, Jun 15, 2020.

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How interesting/appealing do you find this coin, whether or not you're an expert? (1=worst, 10=best)

  1. 10

    4 vote(s)
    21.1%

  2. 9

    4 vote(s)
    21.1%

  3. 8

    3 vote(s)
    15.8%

  4. 7

    3 vote(s)
    15.8%

  5. 6

    1 vote(s)
    5.3%

  6. 5

    4 vote(s)
    21.1%

  7. 4

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%

  8. 3

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%

  9. 2

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%

  10. 1

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  1. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan Eclectic & Eccentric Moderator

    Belgium (Liège, Chapter of St. Lambert): copper méreau or communion token; memento mori, 1686
    [​IMG]
    Obverse: ANNIVERSARIVM; skull and crossed bones.
    Reverse: ECCLESI LEODI; crossed bones with two flames.
    Issuer: Chapter of St. Lambert's Cathedral, Liège, Belgium.
    Specifications: copper or bronze, 20.4 mm, 4.75 g.
    Grade: Very Fine to Extremely Fine.
    Reference: presently unknown, but similar pieces here and here have attribution information accompanying them.
    Provenance: ex-Jean Elsen & ses Fils, Brussels, Belgium: Auction 142, (part of) Lot 1628, 14 September 2019.*
    Notes: This is a     méreau or communion token. Per the Moneta Gallery Coin Museum*, it was a charity token used for the receiving of food during feast day celebrations. They cite it as "rare type without lower jaw on skull". The skull and bones motif in this religious context is likely a memento mori device: a spiritual reminder of the inevitability of physical mortality.
    Comments: I was fortunate enough to acquire this piece in an interesting lot of Liège tokens which included several different pieces of these extremely popular "skully" types. I had several to choose from, but I liked this type because it is dated, and this piece was the best example of that type in the lot.
    Additional images

    003500R
     
    lordmarcovan, Jun 15, 2020
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    Brendan Bohan, H8_modern, nicholasz219 and 4 others like this.
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  3. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan Eclectic & Eccentric Moderator

    Here is a gallery* of all the coins and tokens from those two Elsen auction group lots I won last year, including several types of "skullies".

    *Allow that first link several seconds to load.
     
    lordmarcovan, Jun 15, 2020
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  4. cpm9ball

    cpm9ball CANNOT RE-MEMBER

    I gave it a "5" because I would prefer to attend a "different church". ~ Chris ;)

    1905 LIEGE UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION.jpg
    1905 LIEGE REVERSE.jpg
     
    cpm9ball, Jun 15, 2020
    #3 + Quote Reply
    talerman likes this.
  5. Stevearino

    Stevearino Well-Known Member

    I gave it a 10, m' Lord, because, besides being something new for me, my father was billeted with a family in Liege for two months right up until the Battle of the Bulge when his unit had to get out of Dodge. You really hit a jackpot with those!

    Steve
     
    Stevearino, Jun 15, 2020
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    lordmarcovan likes this.
  6. Paul J Dofton

    Paul J Dofton New Member

    I just traded five Conder tokens for one of these at the Buena Park coin show in CA.
     
    Paul J Dofton, Jul 10, 2021
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    lordmarcovan and Stevearino like this.
  7. Seascape

    Seascape U.S. & World Collector

    I gave it a 10. Very cool.
     
    Seascape, Jul 10, 2021
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    lordmarcovan and Stevearino like this.
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