Monster, giant lead cloth seal 1607 from Amsterdam

woody50

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Jun 21, 2007
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I am sure that all of you have found small lead seals in your searches. They were used for almost everthing back then like cloth, bag, meat, etc., as a guarantee of quality. But few of you have found such a huge cloth seal as I found in Amsterdam. I would imagine its one of the largest, if not the largest every made.

One day I was searching in one of my favorite ground dump sites (those are sites where ground from construction sites is amassed until it can be tested for contaminants, in accord to the prevailing environmental regulations). Going from the top of a large 'mountain' of interesting earth, and trying to detect a little along the way while slipping down the steep side, I got a big signal.

Although I almost passed it by because I had already quite a few of those signals on the 'mountain', and they all turned out to be fairly large pieces of lead. But this one, although sounding a lot like the other signals, had a somewhat sweeter sound, although just like the others was not deep, it sounded like almost on the surface.

Standing on the side, with my shoes dug into the dirt, I got my shovel in a position to dig, when I saw a tiny bit of something poking through the sand and dirt. I just reached down and pulled it out and almost slipped all the rest of the way down the 'mountain'. As it was I knew what I had found and hurried down so that I could stand level and look at it. A great seal, monster it was. Wow, I though I would never find one that big... I have heard about them, but to own one! And this one was in PERFECT shape! Not a nick on it.

This one was used to indicate the highest quality of cloth that was produced at that time. Amsterdam was in it's century of greatness, it ruled the seas and thus the world, and the trade that went along with it.

Determination:
Amsterdam Lead Cloth Seal
Measurement 85mm (3.35 inch)
Mass 214g (6.9 oz -troy)

Obverse Weapon Amsterdam held by 2 lions
Dated 1607

Reverse A koggeship. The koggeships were built in the late Middle ages in The Netherlands. They were revolutionary ships, holding much more cargo than the proceeding ships. There were numerous of these ships built until around the end of the 16e century, when they were replaced by more modern ships with 2 or 3 masts.
Text : AMSTERDAMS GROOT
DVBBELT STAEL

The seal in your hand looks much better than this photo, here it looks kinda porous, but its not really.
dblcoin3.jpg


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Upvote 0
woody that is a fantastic seal :o
you do detect in dangerous places! you could have ended up with a strange green glow from that pile :D
 

shaun7 said:
woody that is a fantastic seal :o
you do detect in dangerous places! you could have ended up with a strange green glow from that pile :D
No, this place where I search is temporary storage for the lowest level of contamination that there is, so it could be just old cow poop and its sent there. The bad stuff (which however contains the most nice finds) is transported to a guarded facility (guard dogs, TV cameras and patrolled, and even most of the time a deep moat around the facility) and cleaned up, that means to be sorted, then burnt in a special cleaning oven where the smoke is filtered and whats left is further cleaned by chemical means. What they do with what's left over I don't know, but I know there is nothing left over for us....

It used to be that almost all the ground was sent to this temporary facility, and then tested. The bad stuff being treated at the same site. But now the tests are done on the construction site itself, and the bad ground is sent immediately to the closed facility for cleaning. Back then people did dig those piles, the finds back then were better and more than now.
 

That is a great find woody,and i would take my chances in the dump also for finds like that!! Keep us posted with all of the relics ..Relicdude :icon_sunny:
 

you Euro guys fingd the COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLEST stuff
 

Now that is big :o Cracking condition & lucky it wasn't in a ploughed field.
 

CRUSADER said:
Now that is big :o Cracking condition & lucky it wasn't in a ploughed field.
Yes perfect condition. Sometimes its funny that some things get handled with diggers and such and still remain whole. I have found a couple of great wine jugs, bottles, and metal finds that you think, these had to be broken, but they are not!

But that is of course because the diggers have such a big mouth or bite, and the finds stay within that. In a plowed field things are hashed around so much its nice to find something that has not been.... Also we find many times parts of a great find, that has been cut off and only one half a jug or bottle or that sort of thing is found. Really hate to see that!
 

Sweet find!
 

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