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1a–c. Token moulds for the house poor of the Holy Spirit in Tallinn, mid-16th century,55 x 108 mm (Photo: Vahur Lõhmus)

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Money or no money: what does society need?Tokens in medieval and pre-modern Tallinn

von Ivar Leimus

Tallinn has had its own currency since the 1220s.1 Under various powers the city made use of its minting rights until the 1680s, when these were lost at the end of the 17th century due to the absolutist policy of the Swedish monarchy.2 However, coins were not the only means of payment in medieval and pre-modern Tallinn: tokens with limited monetary functions were widely used to meet the needs of society.

These needs were diverse. First, we should not overlook the religious way of thin-king of medieval people – everyone was responsible for the post mortem destiny of their soul in this world. Helping the poor was one means of paving the way to para-dise. Therefore, numerous institutions were founded to support the deprived among the population. For instance, the poor tables were held on a regular basis, mostly on holidays.

One such poor table, for those living in other people’s households from the mercy of their owners (known as the »house poor«), was established by the Great Guild of Tallinn merchants in the Church of the Holy Spirit as early as 1363.3 It lasted for ca. 250 years, only closing down in the early 17th century.4 Pious donations were made by brothers of the guild, and these and other sums were lent out or invested in real estate, the interest from which (normally 6 %) was used to fund special preb-ends.5 At first there were 13, then 25, 28, 30 and, from 1555, 40 such prebends who gave people the chance to obtain free food and possibly more, and more than 100 times a year. The prebends were numbered; after the death of their owners they could be transferred to other house poor.6

1 Ivar Leimus: Gotlands og Livlands aeldste mønthistorie belyst af middelalderlige love, in: Nordisk Numismatisk Unions Medlemsblad 4/1998, pp. 59–63.2 Ivar Leimus: Das Münzwesen Revals im 17. Jahrhundert, in: Festschrift für Vello Helk zum 75. Ge-burtstag. Beiträge zur Verwaltungs-, Kirchen- und Bildungsgeschichte des Ostseeraumes, Tartu 1998, pp. 169–197.3 Eugen von Nottbeck: Die alten Schragen der grossen Gilde zu Reval, Reval 1885, pp. 35–37.4 Tallinn City Archives (TLA) 191/1/192; 191/2/47, passim.5 Torsten Derrik: Das Bruderbuch der Revaler Tafelgilde (1364–1549) (Edition Wissenschaft. Reihe Geschichte 59), Marburg 2000, pp. 39–41; TLA 191/1/192.6 Nottbeck: Die Schragen (see note 3), p. 35; Derrik: Das Bruderbuch (see note 5), p. 43; Anu Mänd: Hospitals and tables for the poor in medieval Livonia, in: Mitteilungen des Instituts für Österrreichi-sche Geschichtsforschung 115/3–4 (2007) pp. 234–270, here pp. 261, 263–264; TLA 191/1/192.

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The problem arose of how to differentiate between those entitled to use the poor ta-bles and ordinary beggars. A solution was found by establishing special tokens which every prebendary had to present or wear in order to be fed. Such tokens had come into use by the early 16th century at the latest. According to the account book of the Great Guild, half Riga marks were paid for a stamp and 34 »poor tokens« in 1516.7 In 1528 a new die was engraved and the old tokens were replaced with new ones.8 In 1570, 42 new tokens were cast by pewter master Hans Romer for 7 marks.9 In 1571 a local silversmith, Cort Sturdemann, received 4 marks for a mould for copper tokens for the house poor of Holy Spirit and the minter Baltzer Schepeler 7 marks for casting them.10

At the time, the tokens bore the same numbers as the prebends.11 As such, we must search for numbered tokens from the period to determine how they looked. And in fact a two-sided mould for casting tokens which bears a cross on a shield – the coat of arms of the Great Guild – on the obverse and the digits 1–10 on the reverse is kept at the Estonian History Museum, thought to date from the mid-16th century (Fig. 1).12 What we have here is a mould for tokens for house poor numbers 1–10 of the Great Guild. However, this particular (badly designed) mould is unlikely to be the workmanship of Cort Sturdemann, who was a well-known artisan with extensive experience in cutting proper dies for the local mint.13

We do not know how earlier tokens were designed. However, a lead token is held in a private collection that depicts the same coat of arms on one side and a scratched house mark on the other (Fig. 2). The token is pierced and was obviously fixed to a dress. Judging by the shape of the shield, it dates from the 15th century. Another group of very similar badges dates from the 16th century (Fig. 3). The only problem here is that the guild and the town had the same coat of arms, the dannebrog – a white cross on a red field. As such, we cannot be sure whether this token was issued by the guild or by the local magistrate on another occasion.

The Great Guild’s poor table was not the only one of its kind. The St. Canut Guild, which represented highly respected unions of local artisans, had also been running one since the 15th century.14 However, no St. Canut tokens have ever been found. Instead, the Estonian History Museum possesses a badge from 1556 that depicts a beggar with a crutch and a bowl, indicating his right to obtain free food. It bears the legend DIT• YS• DER• HVSARMEN• TEKEN• TO• S• OLEF• – »this is a house

7 Latvian Academic Library (LAB) Ms 14, p. 57.8 TLA 191/2/16, p. 227.9 LAB, Ms 14, p. 456.10 TLA 191/1/180, fol. 5–6.11 TLA 191/1/192.12 Inv. No. AM 6157, K-3.13 Ivar Leimus: Livonian mintmasters of the sixteenth century, in: Nordisk Numismatisk Årsskrift 1989–90, p. 120.14 Mänd: Hospitals (see note 6), p. 258.

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poor token of St. Olaf« (Fig. 4).15 There was another artisans guild in Tallinn, dedi-cated to St. Olaf, but as far as is known they did not run a poor table.16 The beggar on the token holds in his right hand a shield with a house mark and the letters LVO, which gives us a clue as to its creator.

He was Lutke van Oyten († 1560), a local merchant and the alderman of the Great Guild from 1554 to 1557. In 1552 he became a charter member of the council at St. Olaf ’s Church in Tallinn; some time later he donated a precious antependium to the church and invested 3,500 Riga marks of his own property to establish a poor table there. This capital, which was equal to 1,000 thalers or almost 30 kg of silver, was lent on interest which in turn was used for the benefit of the poor. It is likely that the fund was established in 1556, as marked on the badge. It operated quite successfully at first, but war broke out in Livonia in 1558 and lasted for decades. This brought about massive inflation and economic depression. Interest stopped being received in the 1570s and 1580s. In 1598 the lawyer of Magistrate Conradt Dellinghusen bor-rowed 150 thalers of Oyten’s capital against the rent of his house. Due to inflation, this amount more or less corresponded to the 3,500 pre-war marks, and we can as-sume that this was the end of Lutke van Oyten’s fund (as there is no data about its existence in the 17th century).17

Poor tables for the house poor were not the only form of charity in medieval Tallinn. A »new hospital« was founded and built between 1526 and 1531 to accommodate

15 Inv. No. AM 13752/841, M-831.16 Ivar Leimus: Kodusandi märk – tõend vaestehoolekandest Tallinnas 16. sajandil, in: Räägime asjast (Eesti Ajaloomuuseum. Varia historica 3), Tallinn 2008, pp. 34–35; Mänd: Hospitals (see note 6), p. 258.17 Leimus: Kodusandi märk (see note 16), p. 32–39.

2. Token für the house poor (?) of Tallinn, 15th [hochgestellt] century, Dm. 20,5 - 21,5 mm (Pho-to: Hannu Sarkkinnen, scale 1:1)

3. Token for the house poor (?) of Tallinn, 16th century

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and treat the deprived and sick, as well as older people.18 It was primarily financed through donations and, presumably, annuity rent.19 In addition, on every holiday two brothers from the Great Guild would collect money in Tallinn’s churches for the residents of the hospital.20 Also, a special collection of money by guild brothers tookplace on Whitsuntide.21 Besides these, the residents of the hospital had the right to mendicate either by sitting in front of St. Nicholas’ Church nearby or walking and cadging money from passers-by. In 1586 both categories of beggars received new tokens, which may have borne a cross – as depicted by Alderman Hans Schmidt of the Great Guild in his diary, accompanying an entry about the tokens (Fig. 5).22

Some lead tokens bearing a cross, the year 1539 and the initials VD and HT were found in excavations at Tallinn’s Town Hall in 1959 and 1960 (Fig. 6).23 As there were no members of the city council with such initials, the bearers must have been guild brothers. We know only two men from the late 1530s with suitable names – famous local mint master Urban Dene and merchant Herman Tryppelmaker,24 who could well have been taking care of the poor at some hospital. However, in this case it was not the new hospital, which was being supervised by another person at the time. Nevertheless, it is remarkable that in his will in 1560 Dene left 400 marks to the new hospital, which was twice as much as other charities received from him.25

Such tokens continued to be used during the 17th century. In 1644 Tallinn’s magis-trate stated that the poor could not beg on the streets unless they carried with them a lead token like hospital residents. The purpose of these tokens, which were issued by officials from the church treasury for common benefit (Gotteskasten) in the town,

18 Mänd: Hospitals (see note 6), p. 247.19 Mänd: Hospitals (see note 6), pp. 250–251.20 TLA 191/2/47, passim.21 TLA 191/1/180, fol. 89; 191/2/47, fol. 139v; 191/1/183, fol. 225.22 TLA 191/2/23, fol. 26v.23 Heino Ross: Lokal-, Privat- und Notgelder in Estland = Eesti kodurahad, Tartu 1994, p. 178, no. 474. 24 TLA 191/2/15, passim.25 Leimus: Livonian mintmasters (see note 13), pp. 133–135.

4. Token for the house poor of St. Olaf in Tallinn, 1556 (35x37 mm)

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was to prevent unfair competition from poor people from the countryside, who flooded the town during hard times.26 This was particularly the case during the Great Northern War, which broke out in 1700. In 1707 Tallinn’s court bailiff, von Schoten, proposed fixing a special badge to the clothes of local poor people and sending vil-lagers without such a badge out of the town.27 Unfortunately, no such tokens from the 17th or early 18th centuries have been found.

Other kinds of tokens reflect the economic activities of the town. First there were »mill tokens« (molen teken), giving people the right to flour their grain in mills which, as a rule, belonged to the town. You had to pay a certain sum of money to the city chancellery to receive a metallic token, which you then had to present to a miller. It is likely that these tokens were introduced by Tallinn’s authorities in order to avoid the malfeasances of millers. They were first mentioned as early as the mid-15th century28 and continue to be issued until the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

The amount of grain supplied to the miller was normally marked by a number of dashes with two dots above them in the magistrate’s account books. From 1521

26 TLA Ab56, p. 59; Ernst Gierlich: Reval 1621 bis 1645 von der Eroberung Livlands durch Gustav Adolf bis zum Frieden von Brömsebro, Bonn 1991, p. 322.27 TLA Ab142, fol. 566.28 TLA Ba3, fol. 38.

5. Entry from a diary depicting a token for beggars in Tallinn, 1586 (Photo: Ervin Sestverk)

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this was expressed in local currency units – marks and shillings.29 Consequently, the tokens also had to bear data reflecting the amount of grain to be milled. The two oldest of these date from the 15th century and have 6 and 4½ dashes on the reverse (Fig. 7). Every dash represent a ship pound (i.e. 400 pounds) of grain, as the account books made clear. In the 16th century the dashes on the tokens were replaced by balls. The most frequent tokens bear 6 or 7 balls, the former being equivalent to half a burden (last in German), but there were also others with between 1 and 5 balls. When Tallinn’s city council declared the mill tokens invalid and replaced them with new ones in 1528, 1000 tokens of 6 and 7 ship pounds were ordered as opposed to just 100 of 1–5 ship pounds in total.30 Milling a ship pound of grain cost 2½ shil-lings in 1525.31

Mill tokens made from lead or tin were soft and fragile and soon broke or wore out. This is why new issues followed, one after another. These were mentioned in 1528, 1531, 1562 and 1585.32 In addition, the Estonian History Museum possesses two limestone moulds for casting tokens of 6 and 7 ship pounds from 1537 (Fig. 8).33

Much more important for the town’s economy was brewing. Exclusive rights to brew and sell beer in Tallinn were held by members of the Great Merchants Guild, which formed a brewers’ society. However, the magistrate took excise from the business. In 1562 the duties were ¾ of a mark for a ship pound of malt to be milled.34 In or-der to account for amounts of beer and excise money, special tokens were being is-sued by 1540, and everybody wishing to brew beer had to pay tax and obtain tokens at the chancellery (and later also at the excise office).35 As such, two types of tokens were used to control brewing: normal mill tokens to flour the malt; and the tokens presented to professional brewers. In 1562, when new tokens were again issued, the town council decreed that while the mill tokens had to be struck in lead, the brew

29 TLA Ad38, passim.30 TLA Ad38, fol. 149.31 TLA Ad38, fol. 82.32 TLA Ad38, fol. 149, 239; Ad42, fol. 1; 191/2/23, fol. 9v.33 Inv. No. AM 6158-6159, K-404, 405.34 TLA Ad42, fol. 1.35 Nottbeck: Die Schragen (see note 3), p. 75 §30; TLA 191/2/23, fol. 9v.

6. Token issued by Urban Dene and Herman Tryppelmaker(?) in Tallinn, 1539 (lead 28 mm)

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tokens should be made of copper (Fig. 9).36 These also existed during the 17th cen-tury37 before being replaced by paper cards in the early 18th century.38

Occasionally, tokens were introduced to control building in Tallinn also. In 1551 major construction work was carried out at the Great Guild for which a lot of lime was needed. Tokens for 20, 10 and 1 burden of lime are mentioned in the guild’s account book. At the same time, tokens were even being issued to account for wall stones and roofing tiles.39 In 1586, lime was needed in order to reconstruct parts of the collapsed town walls. Since the lime ovens (as well as stone pits and brick kilns) also belonged to the city, its council charged customers a tax which was to be paid to officials in the elders’ chamber of the Great Guild. As proof, the payers received lime tokens.40 No such tokens have been found.

36 TLA Ad42, fol. 1; private collection.37 Eugen von Nottbeck: Aus Revals Communalleben, in: Beiträge zur Kunde Ehst-, Liv- und Kur-lands 3/2, Reval 1884, p. 194; TLA 191/2/28, fol. 6; Ac3, fol. 41v; 191/2/29, fol. 85–86.38 Estonian History Museum (AM) 153/1/17, fol. 18v; TLA Ac3, fol. 42v; 191/1/62, fol. 44; 191/1/66, fol. 179–180.39 LAB, Ms. 14, pp. 301, 308, 312.40 TLA 191/2/23, fol. 27.

7. Mill token of Tallinn from the 15th century (20 mm)

8. Moulds for mill tokens of Tallinn, 1537 (43x43 mm / 45x50 mm

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Yet another kind of token was used for fortification works in the town at the time of the Great Northern War. Employees clearly obtained tokens direct from their work-ing place. These were then exchanged for real coins at a special office. According to written sources, 7,950 thalers – quite a large sum – was reimbursed for wall tokens in 1704.41 Although no such tokens have been preserved, a stamp for wall tokensdating from 1705 is kept at Tallinn City Museum (Fig. 10).42 A unique tin or lead wall token from 1705 is listed as having belonged to a private collection, too.43

The same war also led to other incidents. Although the members of the Great Guild held the exclusive right to brew and sell beer and spirits in the town, a lot of un-official alcohol was sold during the war. To prevent this, Vice-Governor Wolmar Anton von Schlippenbach ordered excise officials to check every suspicious building and to confiscate all illegal liquor. These officials had to wear special tokens or bad-ges, and no one was above them.44 Again, none of these tokens survive to this day.

In summary, a range of tokens was issued by authorities in medieval and pre-modern Tallinn. They can be divided into two major groups, issued for spiritual or economic reasons. The same can be said about another important centre in Livonia – Riga, the modern capital of Latvia. For example, Riga’s statutes from 1425 prescribed that prebendaries receive a lead token which they had to present at poor tables in order to receive alms.45 No such tokens remain today, but there was an excise token from Riga dated to 1575 in the famous coin collection of Jakob Reichel (Fig. 11).46 Also, a

41 Stefan Hartmann: Reval im nordischen Krieg (Quellen und Studien zur baltischen Geschichte 1), Bonn-Bad Godesberg 1973, p. 133.42 Inv. no. TLM 3243.43 Gustav Matto: Eesti kodurahad, Tartu 1962, 24, no. 107. Mscr. in Estonian History Museum.44 AM 153/1/17, fol. 19–20; TLA Ac3, fol. 43.45 Liv-, Est- und Curländisches Urkundenbuch 7, Riga 1881, p. 249, §4; Mänd: Hospitals (see note 6), p. 262.46 Lieflaendische Muenz Sammlung enthaelt alle bisher entdeckte Muenzen die zur Zeit des Ordens und nachher gepraeget worden – beschrieben und gezeichnet durch Eduardt Philipp Körber Im Jahr 1800. = Vaterländische Merkwürdigkeiten vierter Theil. Numismatik von Lief- und Ehstland nebst ei-nem Anhange von Russischen Courant Muenzen, die seit der Regierung Kayser Peter I, bis auf unsere

9. Brew token of Tallinn, 1562

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number of copper tokens from Riga whose purpose is unknown were recorded by Carl von Schmidt in the mid-19th century. Based on the shape of the keys (the minor coat of arms of Riga) they could date to the 17th or even 18th centuries. The tokens bear units of ½, 1, 3, 5 and 6 T and the initials ZB or ZM (Fig. 12).47 They are most probably mill tokens for bread and malt (brot and malz in German), expressed in bar-rels (tonne), a unit close to a medieval ship pound.48

Of course, Estonian and Latvian centres were not unique in issuing tokens. Gene-rally speaking, tokens of various kinds were widespread in Europe, from Sweden to Spain.49 In many places they are still used to this day.

Zeiten gepraeget worden sint. ÕES, M.B. 59, fol. 71. Mscr. in Estonian Literary Museum, Tartu.47 Carl von Schmidt: Die Münzen der Vorzeit Livlands 2. Münzen unter den Königen, 1853, pl. xxvii, no. 246–252. Mscr. in Estonian Literary Museum, Tartu.48 Jānis Zemzaris: Mērs un svars Latvijā 13.–19. gs., Rīga 1981, p. 111.49 Cf. Otto Rydbeck: Medeltida kontrollmärken av bly, in: Fornvännen 1928 pp. 150–176; Peter Ilisch: Ein Bettlerzeichen der Stadt Münster – Zeugnis für die »offene Armenfürsorge« um 1600, in: Stiftun-gen und Armenfürsorge in Münster vor 1800, Münster 1996, pp. 160–168; Valentin Groebner: Mobile Werte, informelle Ökonomie. Zur »Kultur der Armut« in der spätmittelalterlichen Stadt, in: Armut im Mittelalter (Vorträge und Forschungen 58), Ostfildern 2004, pp. 165–187.

10. Stamp for wall tokens of Tallinn, 1705 (20-21 mm)

11. Excise token of Riga, 1575

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12. Mill tokens of Riga, 17th century (?) (23x23 mm)