Strafgevangenis Ommerschans, huismunt geslagen op last van de Maatschappij van Weldadigheid ter waarde van tien cent before 1830

This coin, worth ten cents, was struck on the order of the Maatschappij van Weldadigheid, or Society of Benevolence. Though anonymous, its making speaks volumes. Imagine the scene: the Ommerschans penal colony, a place of forced labor. Here, even money was not free. Struck from base metal, likely by the inmates themselves, the coin's very materiality tells a story of constraint. Its rough texture and simple design lack any artistic flair, yet its form is imbued with the weight of social control. The act of striking coins, a symbol of economic exchange, is here twisted into an emblem of confinement. Each coin represents a tiny fraction of freedom, earned through labor within the prison walls. This object challenges our notion of value. It asks us to consider the human cost embedded in the things we use every day, blurring the line between currency, craft, and the stark realities of social control.