1 Patard - Philip IV

Philip IV inherited Luxembourg as part of the Spanish Netherlands, a territory his crown would spend much of the 1630s and 1640s bleeding money to defend against French incursion and the grinding campaigns of the Thirty Years' War. Billon coinage of this type served the lower registers of daily commerce precisely because silver was being systematically drained toward military finance. The long date range reflects not continuous production but intermittent striking as fiscal pressure and metal supply allowed.