Cultural Heritage

“Beigla” (face value: CHF 1.10) are tally sticks on which in olden days members of farmers’ alpine cooperatives etched their shares in forest and grazing rights. Their legal rights were recorded as notches made in tally sticks and were in use in the Liechtenstein mountain community of Triesenberg until the middle of the 19th century. Researchers assume that the term Beigla was derived from the Alemannic Beiala (notch).

The best-preserved, almost complete set of such tally sticks records the distribution of shares in the mountain pastures of Gross- and Chleistäg as well as Silum in Triesenberg. It comprises 59 pieces of wood of different sizes, onto which the members of the cooperative etched their respective share: a full transverse notch corresponds to a share, a half notch to a half share and a dot to a quarter of a pasture share.

In order to match the tally sticks with their owners, in addition to the shares, a symbol indicating the corresponding household was also etched onto the tally sticks. Afterwards, the Beigla were bundled together on a string and usually kept in a drawer in the sacristy of the parish church. Changes in ownership were only allowed to be etched in the presence of the parish priest, judges, church stewards and jurors as well as alpine bailiffs.