eyi ipan medio tomines (Osu13r)

There is no gloss that clarifies that these are indeed tomines, but comparisons with other glossed hieroglyphs of coins make it clear. From those other examples, it is clear that the coins with two dots and one dot could have been combined into one coin with three dots. The “ipan” (plus) in the count of the coins is arbitrary; it might also have been ihuan (and). One tomin, an eighth of a peso, might be what a Nahua person would earn for a day’s labor, so humble Nahuas were accustomed to dealing in tomines, whereas elite Nahuas and Spaniards were more accustomed to pesos. The contextualizing image shows a Spanish woman on the left of a Nahua man named Miguel Chichimecatl. He is holding a staff of office, a likely indication that he was a town council officer. He holds out one of the coins in question to the Spanish woman. She is identified as the wife of Dr. Puga, the judge on the high court and the man who was coercing tribute payments in kind from various Nahua pueblos. She also seems to be threatening the Nahua man, demanding that he give her money. Elsewhere in this manuscript, Miguel Chichimecatl appears to have been beaten and probably killed by this spouse of Doctor Puga. See the other namictli example, below. This manuscript is full of complaints about abuses committed by the judges, some of which got redressed in a decision by the viceroy.