28 Stuiver

These notes — if "notes" is even the right word — were struck during the Spanish siege of Leiden in 1574, one of the most brutal episodes of the Dutch Revolt. The city was completely encircled from October 1573 until October 1574, and by the final months the population was dying of plague and starvation. With coin metal exhausted, the city authorities issued emergency currency cut from the covers of Catholic prayer books seized after the Calvinist takeover — a detail that carries its own pointed symbolism.

The 28 stuiver denomination is among the more uncommon values in the siege series. Survivors are genuinely rare; most known examples are held in Dutch municipal and national collections.