Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1/4 Gulden silver
| Issuer | City of Leiden |
|---|---|
| Year | 1574 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | HPM#Le03.1 |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Inscription in four lines reading LVG·DVNVM·BATAVORVM (the Latin name for Leiden, Lugdunum Batavorum), set within a wreath of laurel or olive branches tied at top and bottom with decorative devices, all within a beaded border. The plain field and clear lettering reflect the utilitarian nature of this emergency siege issue. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | LVG·DVNVM·BATAVORVM |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Leiden struck this coin during the siege of 1573–1574, one of the most brutal episodes of the Dutch Revolt, when Spanish forces under Valdez blockaded the city for over a year. Food ran out. The population was reduced to eating rats, dogs, and leather. The city's emergency coinage — struck from whatever silver could be scraped together, including cut-up church plate and private holdings — kept a functioning economy alive inside the walls while residents starved outside the mint's door.
The siege broke on October 3, 1574, when William of Orange ordered the dykes cut, flooding the polders and forcing the Spanish withdrawal. That date is still celebrated in Leiden annually.