What is an "asse" in Elizabethan English?

In the "New Yer's Guiftes giuen to The Quene's Maiestie" we find

two handkerchives of Hollande, wroughte with blacke worke, and edged with a smale bone lace of golde and siluer; and an asse of golde enamuled.

I can imagine a piece of jewelry shaped as a donkey but this seems rather odd. The other kind of ass is not very much suitable as a royal gift, even when of golde enamuled. Is there some other meaning? I cannot find any.

Edit: this can be found in The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth

Solution 1:

Although I can't vouch for that particular gift, the concept of a Golden Ass is ancient and would be well-known to any educated person in England at the time. The Metamorphoses of Apuleius, commonly known as The Golden Ass, is notable as the only surviving Roman novel.

The Ass of the title is the character Lucius, who is transformed into a donkey and undergoes a series of misadventures involving the gods.

Solution 2:

The OED defines asse as a Roman copper coin originally of 12 ounces, and cites several references to it in British literature from the 17th century. In view of the fondness for medals at the time, surely a gold coin or medal makes sense in the context.