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Are chips, coins, medallions and sobriety birthdays in the Big Book? Where did they come from?

In short:

  • No. The Big Book's program text (pp. 1–164) never mentions sobriety chips, coins, medallions, key tags or A.A. birthdays. The one "chip" there is the book calling itself "this chip of a book" (p. 153).
  • In the Big Book they appear only in the members' stories of the fourth edition (2001): a "thirty-day chip" (p. 335), a "ninety-day pin" and "ninety-day pocket piece" (p. 403), a seventh "A.A. birthday" (p. 413). Outside the Big Book, a story from about 1945 has a "first birthday in A.A." with cake at the group (Experience, Strength and Hope, 2003).
  • The nearest early forerunner in our sources are Sister Ignatia in Akron, who gave each patient leaving St. Thomas Hospital "a Sacred Heart medallion, which she asked them to return before they took the first drink" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). The book doesn't say A.A.'s chips or coins came from it.
  • In New York in 1939, by one early account, there were "No birthdays" and no recognition of time sober (Pass It On, 1984). The books in our sources don't say who started chips, coins or birthdays, or when.

What the search found

All our sources were searched for chip(s), coin(s), medallion, medal(s), token(s), pin, "pocket piece," "key tag," "desire chip," "sobriety chip," "sobriety coin," "sobriety date," birthday(s), anniversary/anniversaries, cake and celebrate.

Program text, pp. 1–164: none of them.

  • "Chip" appears once, and it isn't a token: "Our hope is that when this chip of a book is launched on the world tide of alcoholism, defeated drinkers will seize upon it" (p. 153).
  • "Token" appears once, in Bill's war service, a "special token of appreciation" from his battery (p. 1).
  • "Birthday," "anniversary," "coin" and "medallion": not found.

Personal stories (fourth edition, 2001):

  • "Crossing the River of Denial": "on the day I took a thirty-day chip, a friend took me to an A.A. get-together" (p. 335).
  • "A Drunk, Like You": the writer saw someone get "a ninety-day pin" and decided not to get one (p. 403). He later bought "a ninety-day pocket piece" from the meeting's literature person and had it presented at the meeting (p. 403). On a plane, drinking again, he found "this large coin" (p. 404) in his pocket, was reminded of what he was doing, and says he has had no urge to drink since (p. 404). He was worried the group "were going to take my coin back" (p. 404); they only asked if he was still drinking.
  • "Acceptance Was the Answer": "For my seventh A.A. birthday, my program-oriented, Al-Anon wife had my moccasins bronzed." (p. 413).
  • Others mention a first "anniversary" (p. 429), a "fourteenth sober A.A. anniversary" (p. 430), and a hoped-for "second anniversary of continuous sobriety" (p. 500).

None of these is program text. They show what members describe in their own groups.

The earliest mentions in our sources

Sister Ignatia's medallion (Akron, from 1939). Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers (1980) says Sister Ignatia gave each newly released patient from the St. Thomas ward a Sacred Heart medallion and asked them to return it "before they took the first drink" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). She sometimes gave out St. Christopher medals as well (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). The same page has a former patient telling her, "Sister, this is the tenth anniversary of my sobriety" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). The book reports this as her practice at the hospital. It doesn't say A.A. groups took it up, or that today's chips or coins came from it. See: Who was Sister Ignatia, and what part did St. Thomas Hospital play?

New York, 1939: none. Pass It On (1984) quotes Ruth Hock, Bill's secretary, on the New York meetings of 1939: "No birthdays — no recognition was made" whether you were sober a week or a year (Pass It On, 1984). In the same breath she says members could speak whenever they felt like it, and "they didn't throw you out if you got there drunk, either" (Pass It On, 1984). That is one person's memory of one city's meetings.

Akron and Detroit, 1940s: anniversaries. Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers mentions Archie T.'s "tenth anniversary" in Detroit in 1948, at which Dr. Bob gave his last major talk (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980), and an Akron member recalling, "When we had an anniversary, we'd want Dr. Bob," and he never turned them down (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). It adds that in other Akron groups today the secretary reads announcements about "meetings, anniversaries, and speakers," and that the King School group is one of the few where this isn't done (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980).

Pittsburgh, about 1945: a birthday cake. In "Rum, Radio and Rebellion," a story dropped from an earlier edition of the Big Book and reprinted in Experience, Strength and Hope (2003), the writer, who came to A.A. in the spring of 1944, says his wife told him "that tonight was my first birthday in A.A." and the group would have "the usual ice cream and cake for the 'one year man.'" (Experience, Strength and Hope, 2003). He had drunk once that September and told no one, so when called on to speak he told the group he was only "a 'nine month baby.'" (Experience, Strength and Hope, 2003), and felt a great relief at dropping the lie. By his account, a cake for the one-year mark was already "usual" in his group.

What today's A.A. pamphlets say

  • The A.A. Group (P-16) lists, among the secretary's jobs, keeping "a record of members' sobriety dates, if the group so wishes" (P-16, 2018). It leaves it to the group.
  • It also describes the "Birthday Plan": "Some members celebrate their A.A. anniversaries by sending a gratitude gift to the General Service Office" (P-16, 2018), for example a dollar for each year of sobriety. The Service Manual describes the same plan: on their A.A. birthdays members make personal contributions, and GSO "will supply Birthday Plan envelopes on request at no charge" (A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026 edition).

Neither pamphlet mentions chips, coins or medallions. The Birthday Plan is about giving money to A.A.'s services, not about receiving a token.

What the books don't say

  • No book in our sources say who first gave out chips or coins, or when.
  • No book says a member must take one, must keep a sobriety date, or must "pick up" anything to count as sober.
  • Today's pamphlet treats keeping sobriety dates as something a group may do "if the group so wishes" (P-16, 2018). That fits the Long Form's Tradition Four: in its own affairs each group answers to "its own conscience" (p. 563). See: Tradition Four: can GSO tell a group what to do?

The Big Book's own measure of the matter is daily. What its members have is "a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition" (p. 85).

Read it yourself

Sources

Source Pages Date
All our sources (searched): Big Book, pamphlets, history, stories, service — various
Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapters 1, 6, 11 1, 85, 153 1939
Appendix I, the Long Form 563 1946
Personal stories, Parts II and III 335, 403–404, 413, 429–430, 500 fourth edition (2001)
"Rum, Radio and Rebellion," in Experience, Strength and Hope — story set in 1944–45; book 2003
Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers — 1980
Pass It On — 1984
P-16, The A.A. Group — 2018
The A.A. Service Manual — 2024–2026 edition

Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book is © A.A. World Services, Inc.

These pages answer questions about A.A. from A.A.'s own published literature, read in full, with every quote checked word for word against the page it cites. Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. What we read, and when each source was written.