Dutch bread tokens

[eurocoin]

Yes, the Kurrent kind of script is certainly not easy. Below I have added a transliteration, that may contain some grammatical errors:

Nr. 67
Dülmen am 6. Mai 1920
der Vorstand des Franz Hospitales
hat mitgeteilt,
daß der Weber Hendrik Schomaker,
59 ⁸⁄₁₂ Jahre alt, katholischer Religion,
Wohnhaft in Dülmen, Lüdinghauser Straße Nr 20,

geboren zu Slagharen in Holland, verheiratet
gewesen mit Hendrika geborenen Van den Berg,
Sohn des Müllers Anton Schomaker
und seine Ehefrau Antonia Hendrika
geborenen Doevelaar beide verstorben
und zuletzt wohnhaft in Slagharen,

zu Dülmen im Franz Hospitale
am fünften Mai
des Jahres tausend neunhunderd zwanzig
Nachmittags um ein ein halb Uhr
verstorben sei.

Vorstehend 18 Drückworte gestrichen.
Der Standesbeamte.
In Vertretung
[Signature]

[Figleaf]

Thank you. My hat's off to you for figuring it out. I'd spotted "straße" and I thought there was an address there, which might have yielded another clue. The address is close to the old city wall, but the buildings don't look old enough to have seen 1920 and even if they have, they are now so neatly fixed up that all indications of Henk's financial health are now gone.

The address did give a clue of another kind: Paul Bendix (1878-1932). He owned a huge spinning and weaving plant within easy walking distance of Henk's address. As he was the largest employer in and around Dülmen at the time, it is quite likely that Henk worked there. He just missed the electrification of the plant in 1922. In case you were wondering, Henk's age at death was not unusual for the time, certainly not for a factory hand.

With these papers, it is clear that Henk is a pretty unlikely issuer of a bread token. He probably had some money when he left Kampen, enough to start a bakery, but he lost his capital in Amsterdam, remaining poor until the end of his life (or he wouldn't have had to work as a weaver). I find him more in his place as a minor tool in a plot to help the catholic poor in Kampen.

@ the other Henk, owner of the token. What do you think about my latest speculation? IMO, it can be corroborated by checking the accounts of the church or the church administrators of the bread programme. They would have paid Henk regularly for the tokens he had collected and that would show up in the books.

Peter

[Henk]

Thanks for all your input! Especially the record of his death in Dülmen is interesting. I am still investigating his stay in Kampen as a baker but so far no further information could be found.

I doubt he had much luck during his 11 years in Amsterdam. First there was a downgrade from baker to delivery of bread and secondly he lived at 10 different addresses, changing house almost every year. The only success he had was in fathering 5 more children in addition to the 4 the couple already had (one died in infancy).

Regarding the token I think it was made by Lauer in Nürnberg and the reverse, the lamb, is probably from a standard die like those used for childrens play tokens. The small size of the token is also like play money. I do not assign any specific meaning to it. If the token was issued by a church or an other charity the token would have the name of this charity on it and not the name of the baker. Firstly because the charity is the issuer and secondly if another baker, or several bakers, were chosen to provide the bread the name of the baker would have to be changed. I think the token served as a kind of subscription allowing regular customers a reduction in the price of bread. e.g if the regular price of a loaf was 15 cents, 8 tokens could have been sold for f 1,00 allowing a reduction of about 17% (12,5 cents for a 15 cents loaf)

[Figleaf]

I doubt he had much luck during his 11 years in Amsterdam. First there was a downgrade from baker to delivery of bread

Agreed. Factory made bread became increasingly popular because it was cheaper with increasing scale. That turned bakers into mere shopkeepers delivering bread. Marginal shops would have concentrated on delivering bread only, as it would save on renting a shop.

he lived at 10 different addresses, changing house almost every year.

Easy to explain. In this period, Amsterdam and the rest of the country had a housing surplus. To lure renters, owners would offer the first year or so free. Poor people used this to move every time the rent-free period ended, with friends helping to move their furniture as they would help them in turn (source of the story is my father. His parents lived in Haarlem and they applied this tactic.)

The only success he had was in fathering 5 more children in addition to the 4 the couple already had (one died in infancy).

Another indication that Henk S was heavily influenced by the church and perhaps a reason for his financial decline. The catholic church preached that children were a divine blessing (kinderzegen). Priests would make house visits and made comments on (absence of) signs of pregnancy. The real purpose was to out-breed protestants. Smart catholics knew this and realised that a large number of children led to poverty, so they withstood the pressure from the church.

Regarding the token I think it was made by Lauer in Nürnberg and the reverse, the lamb, is probably from a standard die like those used for childrens play tokens. The small size of the token is also like play money. I do not assign any specific meaning to it.

The toy coins you are probably thinking of were modelled on - mainly British and German - circulating coins at a small scale. Maybe the same module was used for this token as it was cheap, but that is quite a weak indicator for Lauer in the Netherlands and at this time. It is not an indication of who paid for the token, the baker or the church.

If the token was issued by a church or an other charity the token would have the name of this charity on it and not the name of the baker. Firstly because the charity is the issuer and secondly if another baker, or several bakers, were chosen to provide the bread the name of the baker would have to be changed.

I doubt very much that Kampen had another catholic baker.

See above, where I mentioned the catholic church had to tread with care, because of discrimination: protestantism was the state religion. My protestant grandparents on my mother's side may well have prevented my mother from marrying my catholic father if she hadn't been pregnant with their first child (me) already. See also this page on verzuiling.

Since Napoleonic times, but likely even before that, the only religious institute that put its name on a bread token, the reformed deaconry of Amsterdam, was protestant. The turning point, making the state responsible (armenraad) for the poor was the law on the poor (armenwet 1912). Before, the poor were in practice the wards of churches (that couldn't cope). In 1912, Henk S had already left Kampen, though. See here. The turning point in Dutch religious integration was the 1968 school reform bill (Mammoetwet).

I think the token served as a kind of subscription allowing regular customers a reduction in the price of bread. e.g if the regular price of a loaf was 15 cents, 8 tokens could have been sold for f 1,00 allowing a reduction of about 17% (12,5 cents for a 15 cents loaf)

The token looks completely different in all respects from those bread discount tokens as listed by Kooij. In addition, there is the word "broodpenning". A simple baker would not know it and the bread factories did not use it. For a catholic church regent it would be part of church tradition.

Peter

[eurocoin]

Although there is for example an Amsterdam broodpenning that amongst other things depicts a lamb on it, in this case it appears that it is in fact a ram and indeed a known design that can be found on Lauer spielmarken, which is also what the piece reminded me of.  It may still have been deliberately chosen as some sort of reference to the lamb/charity.. but that seems a bit farfetched.



 

[Henk]

Interesting find! Do you know the diameter of this spielmarke?

[eurocoin]

Interesting find! Do you know the diameter of this spielmarke?

There are a few listings for it on the online marketplaces. Some mention 12 mm, others 13 mm. That seems to be a match with the diameter of your piece (12.7 mm).

[eurocoin]

Although I have no immediate indications of this, it may still be possible to obtain further info about his time in Germany. I guess, however, that the most relevant bits are now known. If you would like more, I will be more than happy to continue looking though..

As for his time in Kampen, I think that all online etc. research options were exhausted and that only at the archives in Kampen likely some more info could be found.

[Henk]

I cantacted the Kampen archives. The only new piece of information that was found was the date he settled in Kampen with his family: 21 december 1893. His previous residence was Epe not Vaassen as I assumed because his son Petrus Johannes Antonius was born there on 23-11-1892. His eldest daughter, Hendrika Maria, was born in Vaassen as well (on 6-10-1891). No information about his address or bakery was found.

[Figleaf]

Here is a listing of a token for a Dutch cooperative in Kooij:


Since there is no geographical name Steenhorst in the Netherlands or Belgium, I presume it is a family name. E H could be initials, though they would normally be followed by dots, but they could also refer to the largest cooperative chain of stores in the Netherlands, Eigen Hulp.

I got no useful hits from uncle Google, but I am still plowing through Delpher on the assumption that E H are initials - in which case this is not necessarily a coop token..

Does anyone know more?

Peter

[Henk]

Good point! On the site "wiewaswie" I found only one E.H. (Everardus Hendricus) Steenhorst. He was born in Schiedam (NL) on 12 april 1865, married there on 14 august 1894 and died, also in Schiedam, on 15 february 1907. In the address book of Schiedam for the year 1897 he is listed as a baker at the address Singel 216. He very well could have been the issuer of this token. 

[Henk]

The below advert advertises the start of the bakery of E.H. Steenhorst. I did not find any advertisment or other information about the use of tokens by this bakery. After his death in 1907 the business was continued by his widow.

[eurocoin]

Some good research!

[Figleaf]

Very much agreed. Most excellent research! Thank you very much. I have a big grin on my face.

Not "Eigen Hulp", not a cooperative bakery, this one has joined his colleagues on the WoT page for bread tokens, section discount tokens, because it has a denomination. It fits in very well with the rest.

Peter