fjt_571512 - ROUYER - XI. MÉREAUX (TOKENS) AND SIMILAR COINS Méreau de l’église Saint-Paul de Saint-Denis 1665

ROUYER - XI. MÉREAUX (TOKENS) AND SIMILAR COINS

Nicolas-Joseph-Jules Rouyer (1820-1898) bequeathed in 1897 his collection of tokens and medals to the Department of Medals of the National Library of France. His desire to keep his collection intact and the desire to leave it complete, accessible and useful to his fellow citizens seem to be the primary reasons for this bequest.. The collection began around 1840 and Rouyer gave his first article to the Revue numismatique in 1844.. More than half a century later, the bequest includes, among other things, 1,860 tokens and coins from the Middle Ages. In 1899, the collection was classified and indexed, then published by Henri de La Tour in two volumes.. The first volume, which includes 1860 tokens and mereaux from the Middle Ages, the most interesting according to Rouyer, was republished in 2000 and is still an essential source for these monuments of the past.. The ecclesiastical mereals originate from the lack of presence of the canons at the offices. To fight against such absences, it was decided to create memorials distributed to the members of the chapter present, and also according to the duration of the office.. These minerals were exchangeable for food, drink or clothing or even for cash.. These mereaux generally bear the exchange value or the indication of the office where they were distributed.