A Byzantine coin-balance

At first glance, it looks like an ornate coffee spoon… What is it? This curious object, which looks at first glance like a large, ornate, cruciform coffee spoon, is in fact rather an elegant counterpoised coin balance. Suspended on a thread from a small, perforated lug on its stem, this was a handy pocket scales used for gauging the actual weight against the face value of a coin placed in the small round pan. The ornate crossbar and the little incised disc at the opposite terminal served as a counterpoise. This disc is weighted so that – if allowance is made for the loss of a small gash – the apparatus was perfectly in balance and level when a hyperpyron, the standard saucer