touch piece
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Noun
[edit]touch piece (plural touch pieces)
- (historical) A coin or medallion given to someone in Britain after they had been touched by the sovereign as a cure for the king's evil.
- 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 187:
- At home there was still a brisk traffic in the touch-pieces given to the sufferer at the royal ceremony, and subsequently worn round the neck as a souvenir or a protective amulet.