yaotl (Verg42r)

If the shield were a coin, it might look something like a tostón (Spanish for a half peso, the same as four eighths of a peso). The eighths were called tomines in Spanish, and all these words, tostón, tomín, and tomines, entered Nahuatl as loanwords. One complication, however, is that a coin worth four tomines would more likely bear the digit “4” in the middle of the circle instead of the four dots. See the arrangement below, showing how seven tomines are expressed as a half peso–bearing the digit 4–and another coin with three dots, representing three tomines. It is unclear why this tlacuilo would draw a war shield with dots on it. As of yet (March 2026), there are no war shields in this collection with four dots on them, whether arranged as shown or another way. Another shield on folio 47 verso has four tiny horizontal lines. So perhaps the idea was just to put something to fill the space that would give a vague suggestion of a design. Was the tlacuilo forgetting the standard designs, or was this was an effort to disguise the war shield and make it less threatening?