Cloth Seal, Cloth Worker's Personal Seal, Privy Mark, IB, Image & Found by Sjef Direcks.
Found in Landgraaf, Netherlands, 27mm.
66 (+ a fraction?) / 27 (?1/2) all scratched // privy mark incorporating I B
A two disc cloth workers personal seal. The rivet disc is scratched with two numbers, most likely 66 1/2 over 27 1/2. These numbers usually refer to the weight in pounds and length in yards of the cloth but sometimes one of the numbers is impossibly large for a weight or length and must, therefore, be related to another property.
The rove disc side is stamped with a 4-type privy mark with the letters I B incorporated, which probably were the initials of the user. Privy marks were used throughout Europe but this seal most probably originated in England and found its way to Holland as part of the huge cloth trade between the two nations.
It is very difficult to date these seals with certainty. This one is guessed to be 17th century.
