Dutch, Customs Seal, Animal Seal, 484

Dutch Customs, Animal Seal, 484, Image & Found by Gerard de Weger.
Found in the Netherlands, ?mm.

484 / A G (?) // arms of the Netherlands

A customs ear tag for exported cattle. The very coarse brown hair of the animal has been trapped in the rivet.

See PAS LON-8FDA34 "Lead-alloy seal for attachment to a cow's ear. One side has illegible lettering and possibly '78'; other side has a rampant animal with staff/sword all below crown. These seals attached to the ears of live animals imported from the Netherlands from c. 1814 on, probably into the 20th century (Geoff Egan, pers comm)."

From Jan van Oostveen, "It was only used for the tail and not for the ear. ... from authentic documentation from the mid-19th century where it is mentioned how these seals were used. [Scheffer, D.H., 1909. De Geslachtswet. Amsterdam.]" See Oostveen, J. van, 2019, Tax seals used in The Netherlands as proof that 'accijns op het geslacht' was paid.

Another idea put forward by Gerard de Weger is that the fibre is from coconut matting and that these seals were attached to that. He has also supplied the following, "The A C is for Accijns = taxes, G = Goederen = goods, the figure is a document number. Backside is a lion with crown from Holland it started in 1815 the start of Kingdom Willem I."

See Metal detecting and identification in the Netherlands and Belgium for more details about these seals.