JETTON

Copper alloy 'Venus penny' stock jetton of the Low Countries, c.1490s-1550s, Mitchiner 844.

The 'Venus pennies' were a popular series of jettons, or reckoning counters, that were made for the merchants of Antwerp during a period when this city was the flourishing principal commerical centre of the land, and were circulated amongst the merchant classes during the first half of the sixteenth century. The circulation in London, from finds along the Thames foreshore, is restricted to the general period from the 1480s to the 1550s. But the design of the figure of Venus is modelled on official jetons of Philip le Beau, or Philip I of Castile (1478-1506) from the 1490s.

Jetons where the Venus is holding a flower spray eveolve in a generally parallel manner to those of the 'bird in the hand' series, but probably commenced at a slightly later date since they do not include any issues bearing a literate marginal inscription. This group may have been struck at a separate workshop in Antwerp, or they could represent continuity in the local tradition of stock manufacture at Tournai after Charles V had conquered the city in 1521 (Mitchiner, 1988, pp.265-272).

Fictitious inscriptions on both obverse and reverse.

Obverse description: Austro-Burgundian shield (1482-1555) in five parts: Austria - 3 horizontal lines, Burgundy modern - 3 lis, Burgundy ancient - 3 oblique lines, Brabant - lion ramparnt with two annulets in field, surmounted by Burgundian emblems in form of steel and spark either side

Obverse inscription: GVEH[...]MVONV[...]

Reverse description: woman holding a spray of three flowers, two rosettes and a central fleur de lis, in raised right hand, and a large petalled flower in lowered left hand, with rosette in left and right field

Reverse inscription: [...]EV[...]GME[...]IVEVEMD

Numismatic data

No numismatic data has been recorded for this coin yet.