What was demanded to deposit, not for its intrinsic value?

• A. A secret password
• B. A parchment
• C. A gold coin
• D. Minerals or metallic substance to be laid in the archive as testimony that I was made a Mason

Answer: (C)

A token is deposited to symbolize commitment rather than its value. In the initiation rite, the important idea is the act of giving something that stands for a pledge to the Craft, not something prized for its own worth. A gold coin serves as a tangible, portable sign of that pledge—the coin's meaning comes from what it represents as testimony of becoming a Mason, not from the coin’s monetary value. The other options don’t fit this ritual idea as cleanly: a secret password is knowledge, a parchment is a document, and the idea of laying down minerals or a metallic substance as testimony is a different, less typical form of memorial. So a gold coin best captures depositing something for its symbolic significance rather than its intrinsic value.