Billy Groats

This is a Billy Groat. It is a sort of pewter gift certificate. You buy it for a dollar and redeem it for a dollar’s worth of our fine pewter goods. They make a wonderful ransom or tourney prize, or a ‘thank you’ for someone who’s made your life easier, or wages for a helper. The obverse shows the great monarchs: Billy and Charlie. The reverse has the inscription: KAROLUS . REX . GVILLAVM: IMPERAT . STAN. Expanded and translated: Charles and William, Emperors of Tin.

You can also turn them into a medieval toy – a whirligig! It took about two seconds from the time I saw the third image in the photo gallery to the moment I said, “Wait, I can make one of those!”

Here’s how to turn a pewter “coin” / muntspeld / enseigne monétiforme into a whirligig. Punch two holes about equidistant from the center, and smooth the edges a bit to remove any burr. If you want a wicked good whirligig, carefully cut teeth around the rim with nippers or shears. Put a string or thread through the holes and tie a knot so the coin hangs in the middle of a loop of thread. Put your fingers or thumbs into the ends of the loop. Wind the thread up by rolling the coin up your body or – better – swinging it in a big circle in front of you. Without letting the tension off the thread, draw your hands apart so the coin starts to rotate on the string. Bring your hands closer and farther apart to keep it winding itself first one way, then the other. Boy, this turns out to be harder to explain than to do – in five minutes you will succeed in keeping it spinning as long as you want.

Besides the fun of just watching the coin spin (which is more amusing than it seems like it should be) you can also practice bringing one hand in closer than the other, pass the spinning toy back and forth with someone else, and, that old favorite, tangling it painfully in your sister’s hair. If you have cut the teeth, it makes a better whirring noise and you can also drive your mom or dad (or campmates) crazy by letting it drop onto a wooden table or some other hard surface so it makes a rattling noise. You can also create an abrasion by bringing it into contact with your buddy’s arm (instantaneous and unpleasant – I self-tested it) or, when they have seen it once, just threaten to. It is an excellent toy.

We added a video of the whirligig in use – https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=653770820974