2 Stuivers klippe, piedfort triple weight, lion without weapons

Klippes — square-format coins struck on specially prepared planchets — were almost never intended for commerce. This piedfort triple-weight example from the West Friesland mint almost certainly served as a presentation or test striking, produced to demonstrate die quality or to satisfy the demands of a collector or official. The "lion without weapons" type reflects a specific heraldic variant used by West Friesland among the seven provincial mints operating under the Dutch Republic's decentralized coinage system, each of which retained considerable autonomy in minor design choices throughout the seventeenth century.