Baptism Coins Or What ? - Coin Community Forum

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Author	Replies: 8 / Views: 1,327
yiorgos131313 Valued Member Greece 259 Posts	Posted 03/20/2016 1:12 pm Hello every one I have come acrosss these two coins / tokens one is romanian and the other greek after some research I found that they were made and given aw gifts at the baptism of a child , One side haw the name and birthdate of the baby and on the other the date of the bartism and the godfathes name. It seems that they were made between 1880-1920 and from people that could afford them. Is there a special name for these coins and where can I get some information on simelar coins like this Report this Post to the Staff

yiorgos131313 Valued Member Greece 259 Posts	Posted 03/21/2016 11:19 am no one? Report this Post to the Staff
Sap Moderator Australia 16845 Posts	Posted 03/21/2016 5:52 pm I'm afraid I don't know anything beyond what can be found by typing "Greek baptism medal" into Google: that the child in question is often given a medal or amulet as a kind of charm; the Google search shows some cheap brass ones as well as some 9k gold ones. Your pieces are of a different nature to these and I assume that they were made by a family wealthy or influential enough to afford to give away commemorative medals celebrating the event. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis Report this Post to the Staff
yiorgos131313 Valued Member Greece 259 Posts	Posted 03/22/2016 03:02 am Sap hello and thank you for your time Thats my point , theres just no information on these tokes or coins, under what category can you place then? Ihave come across a few more of them and the truth is as you say << I assume that they were made by a family wealthy or influential enough to afford to give away commemorative medals celebrating the event.>> Google cant help as you can find only modern ones, thats why I am posting and trying to find some out there yhat may have come across them and even have some more info on them, I will keep looking thank you again Report this Post to the Staff
yiorgos131313 Valued Member Greece 259 Posts	Posted 03/22/2016 03:05 am << that the child in question is often given a medal or amulet as a kind of charm>> I cant agree with you here , I dont think it was given to the child but to the people that attended the baptism at least I thinh that !! Report this Post to the Staff
Pertinax Pillar of the Community United Kingdom 2133 Posts	Posted 03/22/2016 05:27 am I think they should be treated as commemorative medals. I have had a few but don't know where they are now, one Greek in brass, one German in thin bronze or copper, two with English names in silver, one with English names on card; all from the 19th century. All were small, between the size of a shilling and a florin. It would be a fine thing to find the family's name and situation - try looking on familysearch.org. The first one has 'nascuta' = born and 'botezata de' = named by. The second one seems to say Charikleia Skouloudi born 12 May 1880 baptised 30 Oct 1880. I haven't found either on Family Search but they don't yet have many Roumanian or Greek births. There's a George Vassilios Koutsantonak with a mother named Skouloudi born in 1949 in Sacramento on Family Search https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VL5G-HBR It's odd that neither of these medals bear the names of their parents, so far as I remember all the ones I had bore at least the first names of the mother and father. It's odd that Charikleia's baptism was almost 6 months after the birth and that seems to indicate a very healthy child with probably a desired godparent who had to travel a long way for the baptism. Report this Post to the Staff
Circus Pillar of the Community United States 3079 Posts	Posted 03/22/2016 05:43 am As with many local customs, their use may be limited to the cultures and regions they are practiced in. The Scottish communion tokens. Were used by a certain sect of churches. as tokens to receive the wafer at service. in section of the use that have large Scottish enclaves in the US. mostly in Penn. Although some medals are given to children at their first communion. Like the Mexican wedding tokens, outside Mexico some follow the custom and some don't. Same as the US versions of the Indian style temple tokens, or the Chinese offering coins for their ancestors. Yes there are collectors of these tokens, but the practice isn't wide spread outside of the regions of their use. I have to agree with SAP about the dual nature of the memento's on the occasion of the celebrations. Report this Post to the Staff
Pertinax Pillar of the Community United Kingdom 2133 Posts	Posted 03/22/2016 06:29 am I think birth medalets are a nice custom. It would be a nice tradition to start in a family with a numismatist.Unfortunately, I didn't have any children and I'd hesitate to suggest to my niece. Report this Post to the Staff
yiorgos131313 Valued Member Greece 259 Posts	Posted 03/24/2016 02:50 am Many thanks to everyone for their help every little bit helps !! Report this Post to the Staff
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