Collecting Jamestown: Part 20. Krauwinckel Jettons

Jettons have poured from the Jamestown site since the first shovel pricked the ground.

Along with Irish half-pennies and pennies, these thin counters represent the most common “coins” dug from within the palisades of the fort.

Krauwinckel Jettons

But they are not really coins. Rather, they are counting pieces. They were produced in great numbers and are not rare. Jettons were typically sold in packets of 50 or 100. At least one full packet was brought to Jamestown.

The term “jetton” (or “jeton”) is derived from the French “jeter” and means “to cast” as in casting or moving markers on a counting board. Arithmetic problems could be solved very quickly using this method. The use of jettons was on the wane during the first quarter of the seventeenth century – replaced by paper calculations using Arabic numerals.

The jettons found at Jamestown were made in the Krauwinckel workshops during the late 1500s and early 1600s. The pieces were imported from Nuremberg. The standard reference for these pieces is Mitchiner’s 1988 catalogue: Jetons, Medalets and Tokens: The Medieval Period and Nuremburg. Check it out.

Krauwinckel jettons were discovered all across the Jamestown site. In the first season of digging, seven jettons were unearthed from Pit 1 in 1994. Alongside the jettons were Nueva Cadiz beads, book clasps, a matchlock plate, many jar and bowl fragments, of course a slew of pipe stems, plus a complete cabasset helmet!

But the largest of cache of jettons was to come a few seasons later.

A longhouse, of mud and stud construction, known as the Factory yielded a whopping 99 jettons. Thirty-one were discovered on the cellar floor. And, 54 more were mixed in the backfill from the 1610 rehabilitation of the fort when Lord de la Warr arrived and had the longhouse razed. The remaining 14 jettons were closer to the surface and not in a sealed context.

The Factory has been interpreted as an industrial and trading center. It also might have served as a supply depot. It makes sense that the jettons were found there, as they might have been used as intended – for accounting. Alternatively, some historians have argued that they were used for copper trading with the natives. This is an open debate.

Either way, Hanns Krauwinckel jettons are storied relics of Jamestown and belong in any Colonial North America collection. Similar jettons have been found at other seventeenth century colonial sites.

Collecting Coins is about Magic & Creativity: Without it ... You Are Dead.

This blog has been dormant for a while – a couple of months. But the collecting has not stopped. Collectors cannot stop. It’s not an compulsion, mind you; rather, it is a creative drive.

As Sigmund Freud remarked (and I paraphrase): the collection is dead once the hunt and acquisition stops. I would add that part of the collector dies too – some bundle of neurons rot away after the last coin.

BTW, Freud was an avid collector of antiquities – his “dirty gods” as he called them.

This blog needed a break: a rest.

So, I spent the summer in distraction mode. Oh, I continued to think about relics and magic. But I was mind wandering.

Free Your Self.
Go into D-mode and swim across the Bay.
Collect whatever amuses you.

This is when your brain shifts into default mode. This D-mode describes the way your neurons click when you are walking in the woods and trying to avoid slippery rocks. Great ideas just pop into your head during these times -- or at least they are supposed to. I was just looking for a nudge.

As a divertissement I pondered various muscle cars. What an exciting era: NHRA Junior Stock. Some of my favorites were the ’62 Mopars – side fins? My first cars were Novas: ’68 and ’70 – no, side fins, but a lot of look-back.

Do muscle cars have the magic? Do they have the heart and soul of their past owners resonating within the sheet metal? I think they do -- just as coins contain the passions of those who spent, saved, and collected them.

If you can’t feel the magic, then you are … well, dead.

And, I have never met a dead collector. Collecting is a gift.

Collecting is also a state of mind, a kink in the brain – a magical kink at that. Finding meaning in an accumulation of objects is a funny thing. Ponder that while you are walking in the woods and trying to avoid slippery rocks. So, have I decided to let this blog get weirder? Why not? Relic coins are where the action is. I plan an all-out assault on the new and shiny ... .

After all, I am a necromancer. That is my quest. 

Loving the Unloved: 1802 Cent, Colorful and Corroded

Collectors are known to search – diligently – for the “perfect” coin. 

Usually this translates to the “highest graded” coin “for the money.” Seminars on condition grading are offered at all ANA coin shows. And, the every seat is sold.

Young numismatist and baby boomers (a bimodal group) eagerly learn to delight in smooth fields, sharp details, and strong strikes.

1802 Draped Bust relic cent exploding with Corrosion.

And, there is nothing wrong with that. I like new cars. Plus, we got a new lawn mower -- a red one. Smooth, sharp, strong.

But relics?

Here, we have a beautiful cent. It challenges us to consider its story. It was spent, lost, and then found. It is 200+ years old. It is likely a dug coin, so it came to collectors late. No provenance.

Think of it as raw history. It looks the part. It is a perfect survivor, a relic.

It is a mystery. Who lost it?

The aesthetic of relic cents is one of bold colors – copper turning in the fall season, electrons breaking from their orbits. 

At a deeper level, we can appreciate that Mother Nature was taking this one back.

That is, until I stepped in to save it.

Loving the unloved is unadulterated collecting. No worries about grade, value, and rarity – all the silly things that many obsess about. No, this one is just for me.

Just for me.

Old Sails: French Galleon on Jeton is Guided by the Dophin in 1605

Here we have a ruddy French galleon that is being guided “against all hazards” by a dolphin.

The ship is fully rigged with majestic fore and aft castles. The curvature of the gunwales is amplified with an artistic flair; bold planks and two decks of cannon complement the broadside. The shrouds and stays are nicely detailed. The sails are furled.

The waters appear relatively calm with a few large curls just aft of the vessel. The crowned dolphin leads on the starboard side; its tail gallantly protruding upwards.

French Galleon guided by a Dolphin
It is a hopeful image that a new King will lead to prosperity and peace.

It is a beautiful design despite the rather neglected condition of the piece. This jeton of 1605 was handled for a few decades and then set aside. A deep brown and red patina has engulfed the fields thereby accentuating the ship. A deep old scrape cuts the ship across the fore and main masts.

Despite its injuries, it is a nice piece for the ship collector.

The legend reads: MARIA OMNIA CONTRA. This roughly translates to “Maria (the queen, and second wife of Henry IV) will prosper against all odds or hazards.” Note that Henry of Navarre (also known affectionately as “the good king Henry”) was King from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the House of Bourbon.

Henry IV married Maria de Medici in October of 1600. She gave him a son (the future Louis XIII) in 1601. As heir to the throne, the future king was known as the Dauphin of France.

Henry IV was brutally assassinated in May of 1610. He was known for being compassionate towards his people, but the fervent Catholics and the Protestants hated him for his stance on religious tolerance.

The dolphin represents the French province of Dauphine and has long been part of the French Arms. Of note, the dolphin also has symbolic significance and represents prudence.

And so, we are left to piece together the message of the jeton. The legend on the obverse helps us here, as it reads: DELPHINO  TVTIOR IBIS. This translates to: “Your path will be more about thanks to the dolphin.”

I believe that the piece is celebrating Maria and her son Louis XIII (the Dauphin) who will eventually lead France towards prosperity.

As always, I welcome any comments/corrections on the translation or its meaning.