St. James's Auctions
Auction 74 12-13 Apr 2023
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Charles I, Admission ticket to the Touching Ceremony, the Freemason's issue, pre-1635, a hand from heaven hovers over the heads of four people, HE TOUCHED THEM, rev. a rose and thistle linked under a crown, AND THEY WEARE HEALED, 20.5mm. (N. Woolf, "The Sovereign Remedy: Touch Pieces and The King's Evil", BNJ 49, 1979, p. 104; Pl. XIX, no. 5), good fine and extremely rare
It was Helen Farquhar who first identified these pieces as being admission tickets to the Touching Ceremony. After 1635 the Mint took over the manufacture of admission tickets, striking 5,500 in the year 1635-36 at the cost of one penny each. By 1639 the Mint had struck some 8,000 pieces. Woolf points out that, "None of these latter have apparently survived, and we know nothing about their form".
Estimate: 100 - 150 GBP
It was Helen Farquhar who first identified these pieces as being admission tickets to the Touching Ceremony. After 1635 the Mint took over the manufacture of admission tickets, striking 5,500 in the year 1635-36 at the cost of one penny each. By 1639 the Mint had struck some 8,000 pieces. Woolf points out that, "None of these latter have apparently survived, and we know nothing about their form".
Estimate: 100 - 150 GBP