½ Silver Real - Albert and Isabella

Albert of Austria and Isabella Clara Eugenia received the Spanish Netherlands as a sovereign gift from Philip II in 1598, the so-called "transfer" designed to give the provinces a nominally independent ruler while keeping them within the Habsburg orbit. Tournai's mint operated intermittently under this arrangement, producing fractional silver for local trade circulation at a moment when the southern provinces were slowly being prised back from the Dutch revolt.

The billon composition — barely a third silver — reflects the chronic shortage of fine metal plaguing Habsburg mints across the Netherlands during this period, a problem compounded by war finance demands and irregular bullion supply from Iberia.