European Heritage of the Knights Templar.

So here we have a France tourist token. The year of issue of this token is 2007.

At the time of its destruction, the order was an important institution in both Europe and the Holy Land and already an object of myth and legend. The Templars were associated with the Grail legend and were identified as defenders of the Grail castle through the remainder of the Middle Ages. In the 18th century the Freemasons claimed to have received in a secret line of succession esoteric knowledge that the Templars had possessed. Later fraternal orders similarly invoked the Templar name to bolster claims of ancient or revealed wisdom.

The Templars were also identified as gnostics and were accused of involvement in a number of conspiracies, including one that was allegedly behind the French Revolution. One often cited but likely apocryphal account relates that, after the execution of Louis XVI, a French Freemason dipped a cloth in the slain king’s blood and cried out, “Jacques de Molay, you are avenged!”

In the 20th century the image of Christ on the Shroud of Turin was identified as the head allegedly worshipped by the Templars. Resurrecting a vein of pseudohistory and Grail legends, authors in the 20th century, claiming to assert historical fact but writing what most scholars regard as fantasy, implicated the Templars in a vast conspiracy dedicated to preserving the bloodline of Jesus. Similar occult conspiracy theories were also used by writers of fiction in the 20th and 21st centuries.