1/2 Liard / Gigot - Philip II

Philip II inherited the County of Artois as part of the Spanish Netherlands, and the early 1580s were among the most turbulent years of the Eighty Years' War. The 1579 Union of Arras had brought Artois back under firm Spanish loyalty, separating it from the rebellious northern provinces — which is precisely why local coinage production here continued with Spanish authorization when much of the Netherlands was in open revolt. The gigot denomination was the lowest practical copper coinage in circulation, its name derived from a French term for a leg of mutton, referencing the coin's shape in earlier medieval issues.