28 Stuivers, round

This piece belongs to the emergency coinage struck by Leiden during the Spanish siege of 1573–1574 — one of the most brutal in the Eighty Years' War. The city held out for over a year, its population decimated by famine and plague, before William of Orange's forces breached the dykes and flooded the surrounding polders to drive off Alva's army. The municipal authorities improvised coinage from whatever silver could be gathered, including cut and melted plate, to maintain some semblance of economic function inside the walls.

The relief of Leiden on October 3, 1574 is still celebrated annually in the city.