An interesting token arrived at the end of last week. I planned to post it here as an extension of bronze sold by weight. It was advertised as: COUR DES MONNAIES DE PARIS Jeton de maître de la monnaie en Pologne (?) I had to google translate that from French => COURT OF CURRENCIES FROM PARIS; Token of the owner of the currency in Poland (?) Obverse legend: RESPONDENT INTIMA QVANDO. Obverse description: A balance with coins in one tray and one weight in the other, left a test weight cabinet and right a small furnace meant for testing metals. Reverse legend: QVIESCAM AND QVIESCERE FACIAM. Reverse description: A bird carrying a branch in its beak flying over a landscape. CBG gave a Historical background: COURT OF COINS OF PARIS, (1552-1791) In the Middle Ages, the House of currencies, installed at the Palais, in the same premises as the Chamber of Accounts, was responsible for the control of mints. In 1522, Francis I gave him the powers of a real court to try cases relating to counterfeit currency. In 1552, Henry II built this House Sovereign Court, better known as the Paris Court of currencies. The Court of currencies Paris had, in addition to his judicial duties, a policy function (remonstrances, drafting of certain edicts ...) and control on Weights and Measures (especially treasured said stack "Charlemagne" ). From 1704 to 1771 she gave part of his spring in favor of the Court of currencies Lyon. The Court of currencies Paris was abolished in 1791 during the Revolution. General Provost currencies was a company responsible for the police coins and enforce the judgments of the Court of currencies in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. At its head, General Marshal currencies was an officer determined to find the counterfeit currency crimes and summarily instruct the trial of counterfeit currency, whose procedures were then presented to the Court of currencies. The seller had done some research on the coin and found a reference dated in 1822 and written in German. Time to change google translate to another language. Obv: In the middle stands a scales, in a bowl a weight of mark, in the other just as many coins, on the left a (scale in a cabinet), on the left the (smelting) furnace; With the heading RESPONDENT. UNTIMA.QVANTO. Rev: A bird with a branch in the beak flies over a beautiful walking (field?). Heading QVIESCAM ET QVIESCERE FACIAM. Note: The Munzmeister seems to be a sign, and it fits into this subject. I found two other referenced that looked pretty much the same. One in German written in 1825 and one from the Netherlands written in 1825. All of these books were available in PDF on line! I felt pretty good with this attribution until I looked a bit further. Note that no date was assigned to the Jeton.
I dig jetons! Along with conder tokens and notgeld, if you want an almost endless variety of types to check out (kind of like ancients), you can't really go wrong with these guys in the modern coin category. I only have two myself but will add more. Jeton of Philip IV, 1657 O: Philip IV, VALENCIANAM LIBERASTI CONDATUMQUE / RECUPERASTI; R:Valenciennes , MICARULOSO DEO / HOSTEM FUGASTI. Struck in Antwerp Celebrating the Spanish victory at Valenciennes in the Franco-Spanish War. 32 mm, 5.8 g. I don't really know much about this other than it is a French municipal thing.
And now the rest of the story... I found a coin blog that described the piece as a medal from 1677 commemorating the Treaty of Breda (1667), signed at the Dutch city of Breda, July 31, 1667, by England, the United Provinces (the Netherlands), France, and Denmark. It brought a hasty and inconclusive end to the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665–1667). The dove and olive branch for the peace treaty, and the scales for weighing out or balancing the concessions made by all the parties to the treaty. A book on medals from that time is: De Vrede van Nijmegen in penningen (Nijmegen Peace in money) by Paul van der Zee The token is described as follows. The author translated the Latin inscriptions. "Peacekeeping Negotiations in Nijmegen", 1677 Bronze, Ø 27 mm. Vz .: Peace pigeon with olive branch flies over water and Bergen. QVIESCAM ET QVIESCERE FACIAM (I Will rest and rest) Kz .: Balance in balance with money and weight, A melting furnace and a coin weight box. At the bottom of 8 or 15 stones. RESPONDENTINTIMA QUANTO (they specify exactly how much) Lit .: Dugniolle No. 4384, vOrden 1357 Another token in this book shows scales balancing peace (olive branch) vs war (sword). You can see the olive branch weighed more!
The book can be found here - http://www.noviomagus.nl/Gastredactie/VDZee/Vrede/penningen op de vrede van nijmegen 1687.pdf A write-up on the war is found here - http://www.noviomagus.nl/Gastredactie/VDZee/Vrede/VredeCat.html The Dutch War held West Europe in its grip between 1672 and 1678. With a series of treaties, closed in 1678 and 1679 in the town hall of Nijmegen, an end came. These treaties, "The Peace of Nijmegen", were of great importance. Still in various countries the Peace of Nijmegen is commemorated, but in the Netherlands we seem to have forgotten him. As a reminder of these very important treaties, money and coins were hit in many countries. Museum Het Valkhof has a collection of treasures, but Paul van der Zee found many copies unknown to the museum.
Jetons are indeed fun. I like the look of those copper ones. Here's a (slightly later) one in silver. Roughly US half dollar-sized. France: silver jeton of Louis XV, "Aurora in cloud chariot", undated (ca. 1740) (PCGS AU58)
A german jeton for Chrsmat71 , because he likes turtles obverse: Hercules with bull from Crete on his shoulder legend: stamina & tolerance reverse: turtle with sail - legend: hurry slowly
What a great piece of history during a very important but forgotten war. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Anglo-Dutch_War (Scene from the 1667 Raid on Medway when the Dutch led by General De Ruyter sneaked up the River Thames and captured the English flagship HMS Royal Charles without a shot being fired. The Dutch then towed the boat back to the Netherlands as a trophy.) Stern of HMS Royal Charles on display in Amsterdam.
