On 30 January 1560, John Calvin addressed the Council of Geneva on the dangers of giving communion to those not entitled to it and pleaded: “To prevent the profanation of the table it would be as well if each took lead tokens for each of the eligible ones of their household.”

The idea was that only those who could give a token to the elder on duty would be permitted to take part in the Lord’s supper, the tokens having been handed out by the elders of a parish either at the preparatory service that was the normal practice of the church at that time, or in parish visitation in the days immediately before communion. Admission to the Lord’s Table was then simply controlled: no token no communion.

Despite Calvin’s plea of 1560, tokens were not used in Geneva till 1605, some 40 years after his death. They were however used by the Huguenots in France until 1821 and also for a time in Belgium. However the greatest use was to be in the Churches of Scotland and her daughter churches from 1560. It is interesting to note, however, that no act of the General Assembly has ever authorised their use.

Some parishes of the Church of England actually sold tokens as a means of collecting Church dues — one parish in Southwark in 1596 sold 2000 at 2&½d each, thus raising 20 pounds 16 shillings and 9 pence — but this is quite distinct from their use to guard the Lord’s table from the ignorant and the profane.

In 1560 Knox and the leaders of the Scottish Church had resolved,

'that four times in the year we think sufficient to the administration of the Lord’s Table' and 'that admission to the table ought never be without examination passing before, and specially of those whose knowledge is suspect; we think none are to be admitted to this mystery who cannot say the Lord’s Prayer, the articles of belief, nor declare the sum of the Law'.

Those who met the knowledge test, who were reconciled to their neighbours and who were known as consistent in their behaviour and maintaining family worship received a token usually at the preparatory service the previous week.

While the original use was to “prevent the profanation of the Lord’s table” by preventing unbelievers partaking, communion tokens soon became a means of enforcing Church discipline and, as late as 1813, it is recorded in one Scottish parish that one Mr D and his wife were refused tokens because they were living “on no very amiable terms”. This was apparently effective as it is recorded that they were issued for the following communion, having apparently resolved their differences and promising to live in harmony.

During the various religious battles in Scotland during the time of the Covenanters, when attempts were made to prevent communion for rebels against the Episcopalian crown and church authorities, tokens were used not only to exclude unbelievers but also spies who could have had the rebel ministers arrested.

The earliest tokens were cardboard with the first lead tokens appearing in about 1590, usually inscribed with the name of the church and/or the words of Scripture “do this in remembrance of me”.

By the early 1800s the use of tokens was declining in Scotland although there would be resurgence in the Free Kirk following the Disruption in 1843. The main reason for this decline, especially in the colonies, was the emphasis that it was not a Presbyterian table, but the Lord’s table, to which visiting believers of other denominations were welcomed and even encouraged to participate. Also lead tokens were expensive — gradually they were replaced with communion cards, which had another advantage: one could write on them.

A number of Australian parishes issued communion tokens, some even importing their tokens from Scotland. Australia’s oldest token was issued by the Scotch National Church of Launceston, Tasmania, in 1833. The earliest dated NSW token was issued by St Stephen’s Bathurst in 1837, followed by Goulburn Presbyterian Church in 1840. However it is almost certain that the undated “Scotch Church” token issued by Rev John Dunmore Lang’s Sydney congregation pre-dates the Goulburn and possibly the Bathurst issue.

Communion tokens were also issued from the early 1880s through to the late 1880s by many parishes in Victoria, South Australia and particularly Tasmania, with at least one Queensland parish issuing its own token under the name “Creek St Presbyterian Church” (now St Paul’s Brisbane).

From as early as 1886, the expensive lead tokens were being replaced with communion cards which many parishes still use even to this day.

Lead communion tokens were also used extensively in the Free Church congregations in Australia, again from as early as 1833, but with many tokens being undated and with session records being remarkably silent on the issue, precise periods of use for many parishes cannot be definitely determined.

The usual design of Australian communion tokens, like those of Scotland, is an oval, circular or rectangular lead token with the name of the parish, occasionally with an image of the church or in Victoria, specially, an image of the Burning Bush, and on the reverse an appropriate Biblical inscription, usually from 1 Corinthians 11:24 or Luke 22:19, “This do in remembrance of me”, with occasionally “Let a man examine himself” as an alternative text.     

Whether communion tokens were used in Australia as a means of maintaining Church discipline as Calvin had originally intended or as simply a way of prompting members to attend the usual quarterly communion services is somewhat unclear. It is believed that some 63 Australian Presbyterian or Free Kirk parishes issued lead communion tokens.

At least one NSW parish, Queenbeyan, used tokens obtained from the parish of the minister’s father (St Stephen’s Macquarie Street). Further, as in Scotland, a number of parish used stock tokens, which were usually undated and unnamed.

The archives of both the New South Wales and the Victorian Church have small collections of communion tokens but it would appear that there is no complete collection.

If your parish was one of those that issued tokens, and there are some still lying about in a vestry cupboard, please forward at least one to your local state church archive or that in Victoria or NSW so we will have an example for posterity.