French – Francois I CU Jeton – Shield with Royal Crown

Medieval Copper Jeton of Francois I – House of Valois-Angoulême

Obv: + CAMERA · COMPVTORVM · REGIORVM (“King’s Court of Auditors”). Shield with three fleurs-de-lis, stamped with an open royal crown and flanked by two Fs and four cinquefoils.

Rev: + NOSCENDA: EST: MENSVRA: SVI: (“One must know one’s measure”). Fleur-de-lis cross, centered with a quatrefoil and quartered with four stars.

1515 – 1547 AD. ·  la Chambre des Comptes (Court of the Auditors) · Fe 1704

3.2g · 27mm

The reverse is a quote from Juvenal, Satires, 11, 35-36: Noscenda est mensura sui spectandaque rebus / in summis minimisque, etiam cum piscis emetur (“One must know one’s measure and take it into account, in great things as in small ones, even when buying a fish”).