Irish Political Tokens (Hamilton's Commemoratives)

Counterstamped coins related to the Troubles (1969-1998).|

David Hamilton was a member of KAI and later a UVF volunteer during the 1970s and 1980s. In total he served 12 years in prison (Long Kesh, Crumlin Rd.) for various offenses committed during the Troubles.

Just before his release from prison in 1983, he became a Christian and devoted his life to peaceful pursuits. He did drug counseling in various programs, was a traveling evangelist and became an ordained minister with his own congregation in Manchester, England.

Before and while in prison he would counterstanp many coins with slogans and initials, mostly favoring the Loyalist cause but at times for Nationalist friends he had met while imprisoned. These are the coins I call Hamilton's Commemoratives.

Though I've seen images of at least 20 coins, I only have two in my collection. He gifted these to me in February, 2019. To date I haven't been able to acquire any more.

Hamilton wrote an autobiography about his life in 1997 titled “A Cause Worth Living For / My Journey Out of Terrorism.” I have a autographed copy in my Troubles artifacts collection.

See entire collection inventory at https://archive.org/details/IrishPoliticalTokenInventory.