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1933.90.1

Exchequer tally.

1933.90.1

Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

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Collection type
Object
Description
Exchequer tally.
Cultural groups
English
Person
Maker Unknown Maker
Field collector George Poulett
PRM source Stevens Auction Rooms
Date / Period
Date made: Before 1821
Date collected
By 1933
Acquisition information
Purchased: 1933
Materials and processes
Material Wood Plant, Process Notched, Process Sawn
Dimensions
Length: max 678 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1933.90.1
Research and responses

http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?image=10318891&wwwflag=2&imagepos=7: Tally sticks were a method of accounting for loans and payments used by the Treasury until 1826. Notches were cut into wooden sticks according to a code representing sums of money, date, payee and other information. The sticks were then split down the middle with the Exchequer keeping one half and the debtor the other. When the debt was due to be paid, the two halves were matched to see if they 'tallied'. If they did not, this was evidence of fraud. In 1834, a fire burning old tally sticks got out of control, causing serious damage to the Houses of Parliament.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tally_stick: ... The most prominent and best recorded use of the split tally was in medieval England as a tool of the Exchequer for the collection of taxes by local sheriffs (tax farmers “farming the shire”). The split tally of the Exchequer was in continuous use until 1826 (see also: Burning of Parliament) and the system of tally marks of the Exchequer is described in The Dialogue Concerning the Exchequer (see Literature below) as follows: "The manner of cutting is as follows. At the top of the tally a cut is made, the thickness of the palm of the hand, to represent a thousand pounds; then a hundred pounds by a cut the breadth of a thumb; twenty pounds, the breadth of the little finger; a single pound, the width of a swollen barleycorn; a shilling rather narrower than a penny is marked by a single cut without removing any wood".

Search terms: Writing, Measurement, Tally

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