12th Century purses

If you take a look at 12th century artwork, you will see very few depictions of pouches. Yet quite a few extant 12th century pouches exist. The most likely explanation is that pouches and purses were only shown when they were significant to the artwork.

One context in which we do see a purse depicted is a seal of a 12th century taxman. The seal depicts a man holding out a purse and a couple of coins dropping into it. The pouch suddenly becomes important as the occupational tool of the tax collector.