Overlijden van Frans Romswinkel, burgemeester van Nijmegen 1703

This small silver coin commemorates the death of Frans Romswinkel, mayor of Nijmegen, in 1703. The identity of the artist who created this memento remains unknown. We can see that the coin bears an elaborate coat of arms, embodying the authority and status of its subject. Coins like this, which mark a death, tell us something about the values of the time, and the importance of lineage. We can consider too, the absence of a named artist, who may have been considered a craftsman, rather than an artist. While the coin ostensibly commemorates an individual, it also implicitly celebrates the Dutch mercantile class and the civic structures through which they wielded power. Its commemoration speaks to a particular worldview - one in which power, lineage, and civic duty intertwine, all rendered in precious metal. In the end, the emotional weight of mortality is pressed into the cool, hard reality of social hierarchy.