Brandewijnverkopersgilde van Vlissingen, gildepenning met no. 74 1699

This is a gildepenning, or guild token, made anonymously for the Brandewijnverkopersgilde, or brandy sellers guild, of Vlissingen. The material is brass, which has an interesting golden color. The process of minting such a token was simple, and fast: a set of steel dies would have been created with the imagery in negative, and then used to stamp out the coin. The imagery and the token itself are quite rough, but this is the nature of money, which is not about refined aesthetics, but the facilitation of exchange. On one side, we see an image of the guild's trade: barrels and bottles of brandy. The other side has what looks like a ewer topped with a crown, between the numbers 1699, and the number 74 below, which is presumably a reference to the member that the token was minted for. It is a reminder that even something as apparently simple as a coin is the result of complex labor, politics, and consumption. We can appreciate the importance of materials, making, and context in understanding the full meaning of an artwork, and challenge traditional distinctions between fine art and craft.