Tracking the Date
What does this Calendar Medal tell us about life in early Philadelphia?
This artifact provides meaningful insight into how 18th century ideas about Western Science were shaping the lives of Philadelphia's early residents.
Artifact description
This 1½ inch diameter object is a die struck metal disk that was designed to be carried in a pocket or purse. It was used as a type of pocket diary to help keep track of the date. Such disks were known as calendar medals and were sometimes called calendar tokens or calendar coins. These items were very practical before the invention of printing equipment that allowed for inexpensive paper calendars.
Calendar medals provide the date of each Sunday in the year along with dates for key events. These events may come from the Christian calendar and might also include the dates of the new and full moons or certain important anniversaries such as the King, Queen, or Prince's birthdays. Many calendar coins, including this specimen from Philadelphia, include the terms of the legal year used in English and Welsh Courts of Law. This was terminology also used to distinguish the terms of the academic year in English colleges and universities.
The calendar medal excavated in Philadelphia, dated for the year 1758, bears a unique feature — an inscription referring to Halley's Comet (also known as Comet Halley [rhymes with 'valley']). That inscription reads: This Year Expect the Comete Without Danger.
Cultural Analysis
The year 1758 was the first time the return of Halley's comet was predicted through astronomical observation. This particular calendar medal with its prediction about the comet's return is physical evidence of how 18th century inhabitants were using scientific observations to explain the workings of nature. This was a time when natural philosophers (early scientists) were challenging medieval understandings long used to explain the world and its mysterious happenings. The Philadelphian who carried this coin around in their pocket was looking to rational (scientific) thought to understand the world and their place in it.
Unlike many such medals, this coin does not highlight Christian holidays nor does it note the birth dates of royal rulers. Instead, the artifact reflects the scientific revolution that forms the backdrop against which the new country of the United States was formed. The same rational thought and language of natural law that defines the Age of Science (known as the Enlightenment) shapes the inherent freedoms and self-determination at the basis of the American experiment. As such, this small metal object helps illustrate the bigger story surrounding the founding of our country.
The Artifact Today
The Philadelphia neighborhood where this calendar medal was once used to calculate dates is today a place where American's commemorate the birth of the nation — Independence National Historical Park — and its primary governing document, the U.S. Constitution, which is the focus of the National Constitution Center. The medal has been conserved for the National Park Service, and thereby for the American people, courtesy of the American Numismatic Society. This artifact is one of more than a million artifacts recovered from the National Constitution Center site between 2000-2003, all of which belong to the American people and are taken care of for us by the National Park Service. This calendar medal joins the Liberty Bell and other national treasures preserved at Independence Park that remind us how we came to be who we are today.
Comet Halley, meanwhile, will return in the year 2061.