1/2 Stuiver

Zutphen had been devastated by Spanish occupation and siege repeatedly through the latter decades of the sixteenth century — most infamously in 1572 when Spanish troops sacked the city, and again during the prolonged struggle for control that defined the early Dutch Revolt. Emergency and local municipal coinages from this period reflect how thoroughly the standard supply channels had broken down. The city's brief window of minting in 1604–1605 coincides with the fragile stability following Maurice of Nassau's campaigns to secure the eastern provinces, when local authorities scrambled to address acute shortages of small denomination silver in daily commerce.