Gifts for a Visiting Brother, What to Bring When You Are the Guest

Visitation is one of the oldest habits in the Craft, and it comes with its own small economy of gift-giving, not expensive, not obligatory, but genuinely expected in a lot of Lodges. Here is what actually gets exchanged, and why the cheap stuff is usually the right stuff.

The rule: small, portable, and not a burden to receive

A visiting Brother did not come to collect a bag of merchandise. He came to sit in Lodge and eat dinner. The gifts that work are ones he can put in a jacket pocket and forget about until he finds them again later, and that is a feature, not a shortcoming.

A Lodge coin or challenge coin. The single most common visitation gift in American Masonry, and for good reason: it costs little, weighs nothing, and a Mason who collects them (most do, eventually) will remember exactly which Lodge gave him yours. If your own Lodge does not have a coin yet, this is the argument for getting one made.

A lapel pin. The other standard. Square and compasses, your Lodge’s own emblem if it has one, or something tied to your jurisdiction. See the full lapel pin range.

A Lodge history or a well-chosen book, if you know the visitor well enough to know what he would actually read. Riskier than a coin (see the gift guide’s warning on books), but a genuinely good one is remembered longer than a coin ever is.

If you are hosting, not visiting

The Secretary or the Senior Warden is usually the one who thinks of this, and it is easy to forget until the visitor is already in the room. Keep a small stock of coins or pins in the Secretary’s desk specifically for this: running out mid-degree-season is the most common failure here, not a lack of generosity.

For a District Deputy or other Grand Lodge representative making an official visit, the expectation runs higher than a pocket token. See gifts for a Grand Lodge officer for that budget and those specifics. A coin is still appropriate as a small courtesy alongside it, not instead of it.

What to skip

• Anything that requires shipping or a follow-up. A gift that has to be mailed later almost never gets mailed. Hand it over that night or do not offer it.
• Emblems of a body he has not named himself as belonging to. The same rule as everywhere else on this site. See the gift guide for the full version. A coin with the square and compasses is always safe; a Shrine or Templar item is only safe if you already know he is one.
• Anything with your Lodge number on it if he is from a recognized-but-different Grand Lodge system and the numbering would be meaningless to him. Not wrong, just wasted: a generic square and compasses travels better across jurisdiction lines.

The one that always works

A coin, handed over with your Lodge’s name and a genuine “come back and see us.” That is the entire tradition in one sentence, and it has outlasted a great deal of fancier gift-giving in this fraternity for a reason.

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