1/2 Daalder of 18 Stuivers

Middelburg, the capital of Zeeland, endured a Spanish siege from 1572 until February 1574, when starvation finally forced surrender — but not before the city's besieged garrison struck emergency coinage from whatever silver could be scraped together. These obsidional pieces were produced under desperate conditions, with irregular planchets cut from melted plate and church silver. The dies were crude by necessity, not by choice.

The capitulation came after the Spanish cut off relief attempts by sea. Coins struck inside the walls during the final months are among the most historically charged emergency issues of the entire Eighty Years' War.