1/2 Daalder of 18 Stuivers `1/2 Field Daalder`

Middelburg, the principal city of Zeeland, came under Spanish siege in 1572 as the Sea Beggars seized control of the surrounding waterways. Cut off by sea and increasingly by land, the Spanish garrison inside the city was forced to produce emergency coinage from whatever silver could be gathered — plate, jewelry, church silver. This piece is among the earliest dateable siege issues of the Dutch Revolt.

The Delmonte and HPM references place it within a small, well-documented group. Surviving examples are genuinely scarce; the siege ended with Spanish capitulation in February 1574, and the total output of the Middelburg mint across its roughly eighteen months of operation was never large.