Coin weight table inside lid of coin weight box

[translateltd]

The picture shows the inside lid of a box for coin weights, which was dated some years ago (I think by someone at the British Museum) to about 1680-1710.  There's a handwritten table on a piece of paper stuck to the inside of the lid, which has suffered some damage from woodworm or related beasties over the years, but what I can make out is transcribed below. From the handwriting I would guess it's early 18th century at the latest:

The Standard
Weight of ye following Coins  oz dwt gr
A 5 Moidore Peice [sic]             1  14
2 Moidores & Half                         17  7
One Moidor                                    6 22?
A £3 .12 Peice                              18 10
A £1.16 Do. [ditto]                        9  5 
18 Shillings Do.                             4  14
9 Shillings Do.                               2   7
A Guinea                                       5  ...
Half Guinea                     
A Pistole
Note yt. [that] each grain ...
two pence at fourteen ...
ye Ounce.

I assume the Pistole is the Scottish coin of 1701, which would also point to the early 18th-century dating.

Lid dimensions are approximately 18 x 9 cm.  The hinges have long given way, but the rest of the box is intact, with flip-up lids to hold weights (now long gone) and green baize liners.  The outside is quite intricately carved and would have looked almost like a leather-bound book when new.

[malj1]

I have a nice book Money Scales and Weights by Sheppard and Musham. I thought I had seen that image there but no luck.

Here are a couple of scans from the book the first from 1740, the other 1773

[translateltd]

Brilliant - thanks for this.  The handwritten text on my lid looks to have been copied from the printed text in your second example.  I erred in transcribing the last visible word on the second-last line as "fourteen", whereas it should clearly be "four Pound".

[translateltd]

Couple more pics - the full box with balance and weights (a mixture, certainly not contemporary with the box), and the outside of the lid.

[malj1]

I need to read that book again, but I do remember that it all changed in 1775. here is the proclamation from 1774.

[Coinsforever]

Interesting weighing table with record sheet.


Cheers

[Abhay]

I see a lot of holes in the wooden box made by Wood Borer ants.

How common are they in other parts of the World?

I also see some Brass made Dices in the left hand side of the Box. Are they weights also?

Abhay

[translateltd]

I see a lot of holes in the wooden box made by Wood Borer ants.

How common are they in other parts of the World?

I also see some Brass made Dices in the left hand side of the Box. Are they weights also?

Abhay

Borer beetle is common in New Zealand, and wood used in construction is pre-treated these days to prevent attacks.   The brass pieces are weights (they are quite thin, not cubes like dice), though probably much more modern than the box they have been stored in.

[FosseWay]

I imagine Martin's box will have originated and spent a lot of its life in the UK, where AFAIK there are no wood-boring ants. Woodworm, however, is a frequent problem, especially in a damp climate. Wasps and hornets also take wood to build their nests with, but they chew small slivers off the outside of a wooden object, rather than boring holes in it.

[translateltd]

Not sure how long the box has been in NZ - it came from an old collection that would have been built up here in the 50's and 60's.  If woodworm didn't get to it in England, borer wouldn't have wasted much time once it was here.  None of the companion boxes are similarly affected, though they're made of different wood and are a century or two newer.

[Pellinore]

See also this set of scales with a valuation leaflet from Antwerp, 1607.