Dutch, Customs Seal, 562
Dutch Customs Seal, 562, Image & Found by Wes Ashton.
Found in Stonehouse, Plymouth, ?mm.
Beaded border containing a crowned shield bearing a lion rampant with sword in right hand and arrows in left // circle border containing R & A / 344
The crowned shield is a component of the lesser arms of the Netherlands used by the Government from 1815 onwards. It is not clear if the lion is wearing a crown or not. The crown was removed in 1907. The R & A stands for (Rechten en Accijnzen = Duties and Excise) and 562 is a control number.
The arms, consisting of a crowned lion armed and langued, holding in his dexter paw a sword and in the sinister paw seven arrows tight together, were first used in The Dutch Republic of the Seven United Provinces from 1584 until 1796 when revolution replaced it. It was returned in its current form in 1815 by the first king of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, William I, who added the azure, billetty or with a lion rampant or of Nassau (blue shield, gold lion & billets) from his family arms. However the colour change of the background from red to blue cannot be seen on a lead impression although it is implied by the addition of horizontal lines and the only other visual difference is the billets from the house of Nassau (small rectangles on the background which are only faintly evident on some of the seals). This means the seals cannot be older than 1815.
See Mark Ouwerkerk's Dutch Customs Seals – Catalogue for excellent details about these types of seals.
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