Coin-Embedded Tableware as Part of European Dining Culture

Coin-embedded tableware is quite rare today. However, these items were anything but rare at the time of their creation. Only a fraction of them have survived, as most were melted down at some point. This is no cause for grief for their owners, on the contrary – it means that these objects served their original purpose.

Silver Tableware as a Sign of Wealth

Do you remember the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty? The king could not invite the wicked fairy because he only had twelve gold plates. This tale is a reminder of a time when a ruler’s rank and prestige were measured by the tableware he allowed his guests to dine on.

Elaborately crafted, silver tableware and its magnificent centerpieces were an essential part of any prestigious meal. Anything that did not fit on the table was displayed on additional stands. We know, for example, that the silver from Barbara Gonzaga’s dowry had to be divided between two rooms to fit everything at her wedding feast in Urach in 1474 – 192 pieces were placed on a credence table in the men’s dining room, and 117 pieces in the women’s dining room.

The word ‘credence table’ should catch our attention, for it is closely related to today’s word ‘credit’. Both words come from the Latin credere (= to believe, to trust). If you had a lot of silver tableware on your credence table, one might say, people considered you credit-worthy. It was not for nothing that special pieces of furniture were designed to present tableware on display for everyone to see. We continue this legacy today when we buy kitchen cabinets with glass panels through which we can admire our best tableware.

Silver tableware was not only used by the aristocracy. Towns, guilds and citizens were also proud of their silver items. Not of the craftsmanship that went into the creation, but of its weight. In the early modern period, a punch mark at the base of a piece of tableware would often indicate how much pure silver the cup, jug or plate contained.

Silver Tableware as a Hidden Asset

And there was a good reason for this: anyone who ran into financial difficulties would immediately take their silver objects to a mint to have coins struck from the precious metal. The king of Prussia did so in 1745, 1757 and 1809. And private individuals did the same. Until well into the 20th century, one of the everyday tasks of a mint was to melt and assay the metal of private individuals for a fee and strike coins from it, which were then returned to the person.

Sometimes there was no such mint, as during the siege of Landau in 1713. The fortress commander, Karl Alexander of Württemberg, had his plates cut up and the fragments punched to show their value. The peculiarity of this method is not that the used material was his tableware, but the fact that it was not melted down.

Silver Tableware – Gift or Payment?

Silver tableware was therefore a kind of hybrid between coins and everyday objects. For this reason, such objects were often used as gifts. We are talking about a time when financial relations were not as clearly regulated as they are today. Taxes were a matter of negotiation and wages were often paid sporadically and in arbitrary amounts.

Let us take a practical example: The city of Schaffhausen presented Emperor Sigismund with a goblet worth 200 guldens during his visit in 1430, gave a silver drinking vessel to an author who had dedicated a book to Schaffhausen, and gave the same to the professors who supervised Schaffhausen scholars at foreign universities. Silver vessels were presented to the mayors as a gift for the New Year or for a wedding. It was simply nicer to give a silver drinking vessel than its value in cash. If the recipient needed cash, he could take his silver object straight to the nearest mint. The price of the silversmith was of little importance in relation to the value of the metal.

How did the Coins Get on These Silver Objects?

So far so good. But why were some of these objects decorated with coins of all things? After all, it was a lot of additional work to carefully embed the coins in the metal of the object so that the obverse and reverse sides were still visible.

There are several reasons for this. First, the obvious: both gifts and objects were intended to impress, not only by their weight, but also by their beauty, their exotic appearance, their allusions to the patron’s education. Coins were perfect for this! They were rare but easier to obtain than ostrich eggs, coconut shells, rock crystals or bezoars. In addition, a patron’s choice of coin showcased his historical knowledge.

Since Petrarch, Roman coins in particular had been considered role models. The user of the piece of tableware was supposed to measure his own actions against those of the ruler depicted on the coins. A coin beaker was a perfect topic of conversation in an educated society. It could become the touchstone of a previously unknown guest. Would he be able to identify all the pieces? Would he be able to speak eloquently about it? And if he did not, the owner of the object could demonstrate his education by identifying and commenting on the coins.

Last but not least, many coin-embedded objects were dynastic items. They were made to praise one’s ancestors. The most famous of such pieces is probably the large coin tankard of King Frederick William I, made by the Royal Prussian court goldsmith Johann Christian Lieberkühn from 688 Brandenburg talers and 46 medals of the House of Hohenzollern. It was used to draw beer at the meeting of the Tobacco College.

Citizens also had coin beakers made with local coins. Of course, in this case, the coins’ significance was not based on ancestry but on loyalty to a particular dynasty.

Napoleon Makes a Clean Sweep

Europe probably suffered its greatest loss of early modern silver tableware during Napoleon’s war campaigns. He financed his army by extorting resources from the territories he conquered. Those who wanted to make peace with him had to pay huge sums in silver. Prussia, for example, was initially expected to pay 140 million francs. This was reduced to 120 million francs, which was still a staggering 32 million Prussian reichstalers. As the state treasury did not possess such sums, the princes concerned confiscated monstrances, chalices and paten from church property and had them melted down. As this was still not enough, the citizens had to pay. They were asked to take their silver tableware to the mint, where the material was purchased at a fixed rate set by the government.

This small silver coin beaker was also in danger of being melted down at the time. But his owner was unwilling to part with it. So he paid a fee that allowed him to keep his cup. To show that the fee had been paid, the cup was stamped with a tax mark. The letters FW are short for Frederick William III, the king of Prussia at the time.

Denmark also suffered greatly from the Napoleonic Wars. The state went bankrupt, but the citizens’ silver tableware was not confiscated. So the owner of this heavy coin box, weighing and impressive 452.98 g, must have been glad to save at least some of his money. Made in 1721 in the workshop of the Copenhagen silversmith Conrad Ludolf, the magnificent box shows four krone piedforts of 1624 and 1625 as well as four half-krone pieces of 1624. A double krone of 1619 is embedded in the base.

Coin-Embedded Objects in the 19th Century: A Sign of Patriotism

After defeating Napoleon, the bourgeois upper class celebrated their new self-confidence. This included rich silver tableware, sometimes decorated with coins as in the past. Coins were particularly popular for demonstrating patriotism. A good example is this cup of the Berlin silversmith Otto Schneider. It commemorates the Year of the Three Emperors of 1888. The three 20-mark pieces of the emperors who ruled in 1888 – William I, Frederick III and William II – are a factual illustration of this historically unusual event.

Coin-embedded beakers and tankards became a very popular product in the 19th century and were produced by many artisans. And not just for you table at home or the credence table. They were also used as prizes at shooting, gymnastics or singing competitions. Our example was made in 1909 to reward the winner of a competition organized by the Kassel Chamber of Commerce for modern shop window decoration.

Shop windows were a new and controversial invention of the 19th century. Small shopkeepers in particular complained about the high cost of having to change decorations regularly. They lamented that the costs were not offset by an increase in sales. The Kassel Chamber of Commerce wanted to counteract this by organizing a competition, which of course received a lot of media coverage. The aim was to encourage people to take a closer look at shop windows to discover new products and new needs.

The prize for the best shop window display was this beautiful silver goblet weighing 386.35 g. It illustrates the rationale of the Kassel Chamber of Commerce: they opted for an Art Nouveau design, the art movement for those who believed in progress.