I recently came across the story of Arent Van Bathmen a Mint Master who was executed in a cauldron of boiling oil for debasing silver coins. This happened in Deventer, Netherlands in 1434. I was trying to find what coins he debased but am having a hard time finding any silver coins made in that city or the nearby mint of Batenburg from 1400-1434. Does anyone more versed in this area know what would have been in circulation during this time frame?
I collect a lot of things including shipwreck and medieval so here we go. For a collector of shipwreck silver, every coin is a physical survivor of maritime peril. Before these pieces braved the seas, the integrity of their metal was guarded on land by a reign of state violence. In 1124, England’s Henry I discovered his mercenaries were being paid in debased, clipped silver. He summoned over ninety local moneyers to Winchester over Christmas; those who had failed the assay had their right hands severed and were castrated. Centuries later, the same desperate battle for silver purity played out in the New World. When a massive fraud scheme at the Potosí mint threatened to crash the Spanish Empire in the 1640s, the crown responded without mercy. The assayers were publicly hanged, and the wealthy mint master, Rocha, was executed by garrote in 1654.I believe in Potosi. With regards to Arent van Bathmen, the mint master for the regional Lord of Batenburg. In 1434, the Hanseatic trading hub of Deventer discovered he was systematically debasing the currency. This is why he was boiled in oil. If you search for silver coins stamped with Deventer or Batenburg from 1400 to 1434, you find nothing. The silver seems entirely missing. The mystery lies in the nature of medieval monetary warfare. Deventer lacked full minting rights at the time, while borderland lords survived by striking illegal imitations of trusted currencies from Flanders, Brabant, and Guelders. Van Bathmen wasn't minting distinct local designs; he was forging common regional denominations like the Plak and the Kromstaart. By flooding the market with these copied pieces—secretly alloyed with cheap copper—his work vanished into the general circulation. They carried the ultimate premium of risk: coins that look ordinary, but cost their maker his life in a boiling cauldron of oil because he had cost his masters dearly. My father was Dutch so I have an interest in Dutch coinage particularly siege pieces from Groningen where my father was from.
I appreciate the in depth response! I have coins from the Potosi Mint Scandal and the 271 Rome Mint Workers Revolt so I was actually looking to add more coins with similar stories to my collection. I will research the coins you named and also look into the 1124 event you mentioned. This will help my research a lot. Thank you!
