Coin mirror from Deventer (NL)

[Henk]

This souvenir depicts the reverse of a 2½ Gulden coin of 1897. Size is 38 mm, equal to an original coin. The reverse is a mirror with the text: Bezoekt Deventer Melksalon, LUNCHROOM, Stroomarkt 12 . W.J.M.BEUMER. The back is made of aluminium with the coin nicely embossed.

According to Newspaper adverts the melksalon was openend on May 2, 1914. It was taken over by W.J.M. Beumer from the previous owner. It existed until April 15, 1918. A melksalon Lunchroom is a restaurant where one could have a drink, milk of course but also coffee or tea and eat lunch. Thus the mirror can be dated 1914-1918. It is not mentioned in any of the advertisments I found. Maybe it was given as an advertisment or souvenir to customers when the melksalon was started in 1914.

An original 2½ Gulden coin of 1897 does not exist. A coin of this type was last minted in 1874. The next issue, of a different type is from 1929. Curiously the mintmaster mark shown (at the bottom left of the shield) is the correct markt, halbard, of the mintmaster in office in 1897. The caduceus mark shown at the right, is the mark of the Utrecht mint. The mirror, or the aluminium back were of course not made at the mint.

Advertising mirrors depicting a coin are quite scarce. Only one, from a different type and another issuer is listed in Kooij (RZ089C). This one is not listed.

[eurocoin]

Interesting, I had never seen anything like it before. Certainly remarkable that the mintmaster mark is correct. That it is unlisted is the icing on the cake.

[Figleaf]

Very interesting piece. As a small boy, I would press with a finger nail a coin into an aluminium milk bottle lid. The result lacked in detail, but was an acceptable filler. From memory, it would be about the right size for a 2½ gulden piece. Mr. Beumer would have known where to get milk bottle lids, but the date certifies that a stamp or die was made to produce the piece.

Since I can see your (Canon) camera in the centre on the other side, I suppose the purple (?) ring on the other side is a carton inset and the ring to hold it was rolled to hold it in place. Milk bottle lids were crimped around the top of the bottle, so you'd need a different machine to finish the piece.

I remember De Nederlandsche Bank, the Dutch central bank being very uptight about pictures of banknotes at the time, but nothing about the attitude of the mint. However, if they followed the same policy as DNB, they would have objected to such advertising pieces. That, and the vulnerability of thin aluminium could account for their scarcity.

Peter

[THCoins]

The wide neck glass milk bottles with aluminium lid were mainly introduced after WWII i think.
Also, during WWI aluminium prices went up fast due to the wartime use. So dating this to the beginning of the period seems logical.

[malj1]

I remember aluminium milk bottle tops during WW2 as the birds used to peck a hole in them if we were late getting the bottles from the front step. In the winter the milk froze and came out the top.

[Figleaf]

We didn't have bird problems, but we didn't have a fridge either. In winter, the bottles were stored in a small, flat, railing-less area near the roof (called platje in Amsterdam). The lighter, fatty milk particles would gather on top, forming a cream-like upper layer (kraag in Amsterdam). My mother would select bottles with a large kraag. If it froze, the children would get a wintery "ice cream". Otherwise, it was stirred or shaken through the milk, forming a thin solid layer (vel) on top of milky drinks, including coffee, tea and hot chocolate. Children would hate vel.

I think THCoins is right that the bottle caps came about only after 1945 in the Netherlands. My grandmother used its predecessor, a half litre melkkan of enamelled iron. Milk vendors went door to door, selling milk by the half litre, poured into such (bring your own) contraptions.

Peter

[Henk]

Back to the subject mirror!  Around 1900 a set of cardboard tokens was issued for use in schools. These are described in an article by J.E. ter Gouw in: Tijdschrift voor Munt- en Penningkunde 1901 pages 87-89. No illustration is provided but it is stated that these tokens were sold by the Amsterdam company Gebroeders Rikkers, a wholesale trading firm.

I found an interesting site about school money from the Netherlands: https://www.schoolgeldverzamelaar.nl/ on this site the Rikkers issue of school money is illustrated. The reverse of the 2 1/2 Gulden coin is exactly like the reverse of the mirrot. Thus I assume that both the school money and the mirror, or at least the back, were made by this same company. I attach a photo of the 2 1/2 Gulden coin from above site (with permission).

[Figleaf]

The stamp is more worn on this piece. See e.g. the globus crucifer on top of the crown and the right of the headband on the crown. This fits better with the large stars variety shown on the site you linked to. The date being between dots points in the same direction.

Legend spacing seems different from the Utrecht-produced coins. The stamps shown on the site are all wood (which would mean a relatively short series). This makes it unlikely that the stamps were produced by or used in the Utrecht mint.

Peter

[Pellinore]

Funny, it somehow reminds me of this advertising 'coin', a booklet in the form of a Dutch Rijksdaalder of king William III: a box medal.

As it happens, I was on the Stroomarkt in Deventer on Thursday. The building still stands, it is a part of a famous former hotel (De Keizerskroon / The Emperor's Crown), now a restaurant as it obviously also was in the early 20th century.

A rare memento, I'm sure.
-- Paul