1/2 Ecu 'Philippe' - Philip II Bust right

Tournai's mint operated under Spanish Habsburg authority during the opening phase of the revolt that would eventually sever the northern provinces permanently. By 1581, the year this half écu was struck, the Union of Arras had already bound the southern Catholic provinces — including Tournai — back to Philip II's obedience, a direct counterweight to the Union of Utrecht formed the previous year. The city would fall definitively to Parma's forces the following year.

The Delmonte reference places this among the scarcer provincial issues of the southern Netherlands series. Tournai's output in this period was intermittent, constrained by both the military situation and periodic interruptions to bullion supply from Antwerp.