ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the coin as contemporary ritual deposit within the British Isles by way of an exemplar: the coin-tree custom, a practice which involves the embedding of coins into the trunks of trees. This custom emerged in Scotland during the eighteenth century, having evolved from the similar practices of pin-trees and rag-trees, often employed in healing rituals. However, it was not until the late twentieth century that the coin-tree custom became widespread. Drawing on historical literary resources, the material evidence of the coin-trees, and ethnographic data collected from modern-day participants, this chapter questions what accounted for the coin’s emergence as the most popular modern-day ritual deposit in Britain.
