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1/2 Trentin Countermarked

Issuer Catalonia, Principality of
Year 1640-1659
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Currency Libra
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Obverse description Conjoined crowned busts of Ferdinand and Isabella facing each other in profile, set within a beaded inner circle with a circular legend running between the beaded borders. The effigies are rendered in the typical late-medieval Castilian-Aragonese hammered style, with visible crown detailing above each bust. A rhomboid (lozenge-shaped) countermark is applied in the field, characteristic of the Catalan countermarking programme of 1640–1659. The flan is irregular, as typical of hammered coinage of this period.
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Reverse lettering SVB VMBRA ALAR TVA
(Translation: Protect us under the shadow of your wings)
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Additional information

The countermarking of these half-trentins falls squarely within the Reapers' War — the Catalan revolt against Philip IV of Spain that began in June 1640 with the massacre of Castilian troops near Barcelona. Cut off from Castilian monetary supply and operating under French protection after swearing allegiance to Louis XIII, the Catalan administration countermarked existing gold to assert fiscal control during the conflict. The war dragged on until 1659, when the Treaty of the Pyrenees ended it by ceding northern Catalonia permanently to France.

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