Tomin (MH569v)
This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Tomín (“Money,” or an "Eighth of a Peso," attested here as a man’s name) shows a circle with another, much smaller circle in the center of the larger one. This circle is meant to suggest a coin, an eighth of a peso (a real, also called a tomin).
Stephanie Wood
These coins represent a European introduction in New Spain. A half tomin was a very small amount of money. See our Online Nahuatl Dictionary for more information about tomin coins and, as it evolved, money. In one source we cite, a study of a codex from the sixteenth century, a half tomin was the equivalent of 20 cacao beans. Given that the weight of coins (in gold or silver) also determined their value, the term tomin could also refer to weight, some number of "granos" (grains).
The single dot in the center seems to be a reminder that this is just one tomin. Sometimes these smaller circles can run from one, two, three, or up to four. Sometimes the number "4" is written in, in place of four dots. These are variations that will be found in this collection as more examples enter the database.
Stephanie Wood
baltasal tomin
Baltazar Tomín
Stephanie Wood
1560
Stephanie Wood
coins, monedas, dinero, money, reales, tomines
tomin, 1/8 peso, coin, or money, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tomin
Un Real
Stephanie Wood
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 569v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=218&st=image.
This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).
