The Plight of the 17-Century Salesman

[Pellinore]

Early coin scales with text printed in 1607 by Hieronymus Verdussen in Antwerp. Spotted in the Museum Plantin-Moretus at the Vrijdagmarkt in Antwerp, where we yesterday admired the Plantin printshop that was founded in about 1550.

Title:

Niewe valuatie vande goude munte, vanden lesten Iunii, Anno 1607 - or New Valuation of the Gold Coins of the Last of June, of the Year 1607
In the first column is the name and country of the coin
The second gives the value in Guilders and stuivers (or stuivers only, see the last entry: the gold guilder of Gelre and the Three Hanze Cities Deventer, Kampen & Zwolle had a value of xxxix St, 39 stuivers)
The third column gives the weight. D probably is denier/ penning, but others will know more about that.

-- Paul

[Figleaf]

Extraordinary piece, worthy of a museum exhibit. The trick is to get the set of weights complete.

Peter

[Pellinore]

Extraordinary piece, worthy of a museum exhibit. The trick is to get the set of weights complete.

Peter

Well, it is a museum piece, the museum of the Plantin printers in Antwerp. The old shop, the printing presses and the library are still completely intact after 450 years. They also own a Gutenberg bible, the apogee for old book collectors (like me).
The set of weights is still complete, but I was much surprised that there is an original valuation pamphlet preserved in the box! I'm sure these ephemeral leaflets are much more rare than the weights (or the coins). I'm sure that ephemeral coins of little value, if they were thin and delicate, would be rarer than beautiful and valuable gold and silver of the same age. Isn't that the case with the wafer thin mites of 1450-1500?
-- Paul

[Figleaf]

See this thread.

Peter