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40 stuivers
| Issuer | Siege of Oudewater (Dutch Republic) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1575 |
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| Currency | Gulden (1581-1795) |
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| Obverse description | Crudely struck field bearing the coat of arms of Oudewater at centre — a crowned lion rampant set within a lozenge-shaped cartouche — flanked and surrounded by four impressed rectangular tablet punches arranged in a cruciform pattern. The upper two tablets carry the legend GODT and MET respectively, the lower left tablet bears the date 1575, the lower right tablet the numeral 40 denoting the denomination in stuivers, and the bottom tablet reads ONS, together forming the Dutch motto GODT MET ONS (God with us). The overall composition is characteristic of improvised siege coinage, with each element applied separately by punch onto a cast tin flan. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Oudewater held out against Spanish forces for less than a day on August 7, 1575, which makes the survival of any siege coinage from this town extraordinary. The Spanish sack was immediate and catastrophic — the garrison was massacred and much of the population killed. Whatever emergency pieces were struck had almost no time to circulate, and most would have been melted, lost, or destroyed in the violence that followed.
Tin was the material of last resort, used when silver was exhausted or hoarded. At 37 grams, this piece represents a substantial casting rather than a struck coin in any conventional sense.