1799 Token Associate Church of New York Communion

Coin Details

Auction Record

$900 AU55 03-29-2023 Stack's Bowers

Description

This 1799 communion token from the Associate Church of New York documents one of the dissenting Presbyterian denominations that maintained strict covenanting principles in late-eighteenth-century America. The Associate Church (also known as Associate Presbytery or Seceder Church) had its origins in the 1733 Scottish Secession, when a group of ministers broke from the Church of Scotland over issues of patronage and church governance. These Seceders brought their distinctive ecclesiastical practices to America, including the rigorous use of communion tokens. The New York congregation represented an urban outpost of a denomination that was predominantly rural and frontier-oriented. This token is significant as both a numismatic artifact and a document of the complex denominational landscape of American Presbyterianism at the close of the eighteenth century.

Rarity Notes

Associate Church of New York, 1799. Seceder Presbyterian denomination. Urban communion token from early New York City religious life.

Cross References

PCGS #913301; Associate Church of New York, 1799 Communion Token