At the assay table in the Lower Market Hall, Ola Senn keeps the opening docket file beside a shallow notch on the old standard weight where a maker’s mark has worn smooth. The two details are easy to miss in a summary: one is a line in a ledger, the other is the condition that decides whether the line is useful.
Ola Senn is the licensed copper assayer. On this thaw season visit, the work begins with the assay slips, stamped weights and the merchants’ challenge book; only after the entry is checked can the crew say what the rule asks of the people below.
68 bars checked against the common weight were entered this cycle, compared with 64 in the prior file. The figure is one part of a longer handoff. Nima Thol checked the assay slips, stamped weights and the merchants’ challenge book against the field notes. The method is to put the posted price beside the amount that actually changed hands; it confirms the entries, but not every interpretation attached to them.
Guilds say one standard hides differences in bar shape; buyers say multiple standards make a fair comparison harder. The current record does not settle that disagreement. Residents closest to the work describe the difference as a route, a wait or a shift that cannot be moved on a slate. Their accounts have been attached to the docket rather than folded into the total.
A second set of hands has checked the count and recorded where the methods differ. The entry belongs to the opening docket file at the assay table in the Lower Market Hall. The assay table will test both systems against the same set of bars. The next visit will show whether the revision travels beyond the office that wrote it.
