The museum has an extensive collection of CH Badges, Prizes and Tokens, which have a direct and fascinating connection with CH heritage.
Silver badges were worn on the shoulder from 1673 by the 40 boys in the Royal Mathematical School (RMS), as required by the terms of its Royal Charter, and different silver badges were worn by the 12 boys on the Stone Foundation from 1716 and by the 2 boys on the Stocks Foundation from 1782, all of whom were taught in the RMS. Initially these badges were made of Silver, but later were changed to silver plate, with a silver badge being presented on leaving the RMS.
The 1673 RMS badge is still worn today, and the practice of wearing badges in the RMS has since been extended to include pupils on 17 other Foundations.
CH was one of the first schools to mark the achievements of its pupils with silver and other awards. Silver pens were first awarded in 1798 for penmanship, and medals for those who came close to winning were awarded in 1799. These were closely followed in 1800 by medals for arithmetic and writing.
Amongst the finest medals awarded were gold medals for mathematics and classics, with a relief of the 1829 Great Hall on one side and the head of the President, William Thompson, on the other, which were awarded from 1840. The silver Lamb medal, which was awarded from 1875 as an essay prize, carried a head of Charles Lamb, designed by the celebrated medal designer, AB Wyon.
Marker’s medals were worn by boys and girls appointed by the Steward as a marker to hear other pupils’ catechisms on Sundays. These medals were handed down when pupils left, and a newly struck medal, engraved with the name of the pupil, was presented to the marker on leaving, provided it was merited by good behaviour.
In England in the 1790s there was a shortage of coins in the country when the value of the copper content exceeded the face value of the coins, and as a result penny and halfpenny tokens were minted privately and used as general currency. Several of these tokens featured images of CH or of CH pupils.
From 1800 CH minted its own coinage, a sixpence, penny and halfpenny, which were exchanged for the coin of the realm and could only be spent in shops within the site. They were known in CH as Housey Money.
A booklet in the CH Heritage Series, Badges, Prizes and Tokens, was published in March 2013.