ENGLISH CHRISTIAN PILGRIM’S BADGE, 14TH-15TH CENTURY AD

Circular, 7/8” diameter. White metal, probably a tin-lead pewter alloy. The front with a raised circle enclosing a curiously asymmetrical cross. The upper right of the center post significantly thickened and the top of the right cross beam split. The image crisp and the variances distinctive, undoubtedly with  mystical significance, now lost. Reverse plain. The top with remnants of an integral suspension lug for fastening to a garment, usually a hat. These were produced in the Holy Land for pilgrims who wore them at home as prestige symbols. They were sold at shrines of saints where holy relics of the saints, sometimes, the whole corpus, were preserved. The symbols are specific to the life and achievements of the saint. Pilgrims (known upon their return as “palmers” and thus originating the surname Palmer) wore them strung as necklaces, on hats, or attached to the clothing.