tomin tamchihuani (Osu13r)
This simplex glyph from the Codex Osuna, folio 13 recto (or Image 28), shows a scale for weighing money. The text that accompanies this glyph does not give it the Nahuatl title that we have applied. Rather, the title “tomin tamachihuani” draws from the Online Nahuatl Dictionary and the work of Alonso de Molina. The device for weighing is a bowl with a curved bottom. The pan or bowl was often metal, but this one is painted turquoise blue, perhaps a Nahua reference to the high value associated with the contents being weighed. Three cords are attached to the bowl, and they come together above the bowl in a knot with a loop.
Stephanie Wood
Other examples of scales typically have two pans suspended to a horizontal bar, for seeing how things balance out. Two of them are personal names, which is perhaps something of a surprise.
Stephanie Wood
1551–1565
Jeff Haskett-Wood
pesar, pesadores, monedas, dinero, tomines, balanzas, escalas, tlaoctacatiloni

tomin tamachihuani, a scale for weighing money, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tomin-tamachihuani
la balanza para pesar monedas
Stephanie Wood
Library of Congress Online Catalog and the World Digital Library, Osuna Codex, or Painting of the Governor, Mayors, and Rulers of Mexico (Pintura del Gobernador, Alcaldes y Regidores de México), https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_07324/. The original is located in the Biblioteca Nacional de España.
"The Library of Congress is unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection. Absent any such restrictions, these materials are free to use and reuse." But please cite the Biblioteca Nacional de España and this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs if you use any of these images here or refer to the content on this page, providing the URL.
