20 Stivers Siege of 1577

Breda was besieged by Spanish forces under Cristóbal de Mondragón in 1577 during the broader conflict of the Eighty Years' War, and this piece was struck by the city under emergency authorization when normal supply lines collapsed. Siege coinage of this type was produced from whatever silver the city could gather — plate, jewelry, cut bullion — which explains the irregular planchet dimensions recorded for this type.

The Delmonte attribution places it among the rarer documented Dutch siege issues of the period. Few examples survive undamaged.