The first picture is what they do in a house in Amsterdam when they remodel. They dig out the basement. When they take out about a meter of soil, they are down to the soil that was there about 400 years ago. The soil is a very heavy, thick clay. It is almost black. It is different from the soil above and you start to "know it when you see it." There is so much water in the soil, they have to drive steel pilings in the ground to support the floor. They use these steel pipes now but when Amsterdam was first built, they used timber (whole trees actually) to support the weight of the buildings in the water-logged soil. Those original 700 year old timbers are still there and many of the houses in Amsterdam built around the canals still depend on them. I was lucky to be able to stay in this basement for several days and search most of the deep soil. Good searching but I had to work at night when everyone was gone and no work was going on.
Before the 1700's, most people could not read or write. They couldn't count either. In order to be able to go into a store and buy things, they had to be able to know how much they bought and how much to pay. They did this with items like this Jetton. The merchant had a board with slots on it and the Jettons were moved in the slots according to what amount was represented. It worked somewhat like an abacus. When the transaction was finished both the customer and merchant could "read" the pattern and know what money was owed. This jetton is one produced by a master jetton maker and may be what they call a demonstration Jetton which is like a proof coin and is meant to show the skills of the maker. It is a very superior strike and the detail is much better than a "normal" Jetton. It shows best on the reverse side. I'll post a photo.
The second coin is a Roman Coin. As best I can tell, it is coin of Constantine the Great, about 310AD. For coins of that time, it is still in good shape.
The third coin is an 1869 2 1/2 guilder silver coin. It is slightly larger than a silver dollar. It was dug from a place that receives all the dirt from Amsterdam. They say that the soil in Amsterdam is so polluted that all of it must go to special places to be stored until it can be tested. The soil they take to these places is just put into large piles to dry. It is full of lots of good stuff. Problem is, it is illegal to search it. You have to wait until all the workers are gone and search it then. You dig out a pile of it and then use your metal detector to search it. You just keep digging and searching. Not a lot of fun. Lot of glass, pottery, tile, pipes, and other pretties to take if you can't find any coins. The best coin found in the pile this coin came from was a gold coin from the 16th century.
The next coin is a silver "Rijderschelling" from the province Utrecht with a "KLOP" in the center of the coat of arms. That mark indicates the ruler under which the coin was minted has died and the coin is being used by another ruler.
The next item is another Jetton. Many Jettons are found with holes in the middle. Some say that when they were no longer needed, people learned to count, read, write, they were useless and people tried to find uses for them. One use was for decoration and they were nailed to surfaces to make it look nice.
The next item is a hand-made silver straight pin from the 17th century. Only rich people could afford these and they were kept with needles in a special tube that looked much like a lipstick holder does today.
The next item is a pair of silver wick scissors. These were used in a church to trim the wicks on the candles. The metal box would catch the hot wick. It is missing the lid that would be attached to the other piece and close over the box. It is heavily engraved with religious symbols on all sides of the box.
Next is a common musket ball.
The next item (as well as the last item) is a lead tax seal. Everything sold and shipped that was taxed, had to have these tax stamps attached. Strips of them were attached to add up to the amount of tax paid. Much like stamps are put on envelopes for postage today.
The next item is a coin from West Friesland (Province in the Netherlands) called a Duit. They are common but most times the detail is either worn off or "eaten" by the bad soil.
Well that is what they are. Kind of neat things to find and have.
Daryl
