Balance

Placing a coin on one pan and weights on the other showed whether the coin held its full weight of metal.

Date: 1807
Maker: Poppenberg Brothers
Place: Germany
Dimensions: overall: 3/4 in x 7 5/16 in x 4 1/4 in; 1.905 cm x 18.542 cm x 10.795 cm
Museum: National Museum of American History
Credit line: Gift of American Pharmaceutical Association and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company

This hand-held coin balance was made by the Poppenberg Brothers in Germany. The beam is iron and the pans are brass. There are 21 square-tapered weights and 9 fraction weights housed inside the the wooden case with a hinged lid. The paper label on the interior of the lid is marked, in part, "DIED. PET. CASP. DIED. PET. CASP POPPENBERG / im Amt. Blankenstein bey Sprockhovel / Anno 1807."

The museum's own record (Smithsonian, National Museum of American History)