Albert and Isabella inherited the Spanish Netherlands in 1598 as nominal sovereigns — a political compromise designed to placate Flemish sentiment while keeping the region firmly within the Habsburg orbit. The Maastricht mint, operating under this arrangement, produced copper small change that circulated heavily through the southern provinces during the protracted siege warfare and economic disruption of the Eighty Years' War. These pieces were struck for daily transaction use in a region that changed military hands repeatedly.
The "Gigot" designation derives from the French slang for a small coin of little worth — a telling indicator of how contemporaries regarded the purchasing power of copper liard fractions by this period.
Albert and Isabella inherited the Spanish Netherlands in 1598 as nominal sovereigns — a political compromise designed to placate Flemish sentiment while keeping the region firmly within the Habsburg orbit. The Maastricht mint, operating under this arrangement, produced copper small change that circulated heavily through the southern provinces during the protracted siege warfare and economic disruption of the Eighty Years' War. These pieces were struck for daily transaction use in a region that changed military hands repeatedly.
The "Gigot" designation derives from the French slang for a small coin of little worth — a telling indicator of how contemporaries regarded the purchasing power of copper liard fractions by this period.