"FRID D'OR" weight or coin?

I was bidding on this on ebay, but wasn't sure what it was and chickened out. I can't find it on Numista or NGC.

I think it must be a weight, but the elaborate design and the data had me a little confused.



Thanks,

Chris

It's a weight coin used in Prussia. Couldn't find much except the listing you got this from.

This is a really interesting item. Seems it is some kind of weight standard used for coins. The Friedrich d'Or was a gold Trade Coin which came in denominations of 1/2, 1 and 2. I suspect these weight standards were something people used to check the authenticity of the coins they received while trading. Although this is not a coin or a token (in my personal opinion), I think it is an extremely interesting piece of numismatic history.

Also see these links: http://www.waagenundgewichte.de/main/waagen/mw2.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_d'or

Not just authenticity, but also to check if there was enough gold on the coin. It was common to shave off the edges of gold coins at the time (which is why they started reeding coins) so these brass weights were used to check the weight of gold of the coin.

Thanks, very good stuff. I would have paid $20 for it, $77 was a bit steep.