1/2 Daalder Silver, Klippe

Zierikzee, a fortified port on the Zeeland island of Schouwen-Duiveland, was besieged by Spanish forces under Mondragon beginning in late 1575. The town held out for months, and as the blockade tightened, civic authorities authorized emergency coinage struck from whatever silver was at hand — plate, cut bullion, salvaged metal — producing the squared klippe format that is the hallmark of siege necessity rather than mint convenience. The occupation finally fell in July 1576 after the relief fleet under Admiral Boisot was defeated, Boisot himself drowning in the action.

Fewer than a handful of Dutch Republic siege issues predate this one.