40 Stuivers XL at bottom

Amsterdam began issuing its own coinage in 1578 following the city's dramatic switch of allegiance from Spain to the rebel Dutch cause — the event known as the Alteratie, which took place in May of that year. This piece is effectively a founding document of the reformed city's financial ambitions, struck within months of the political upheaval that expelled Catholic civic authority and handed control to the Calvinist merchant class.

The XL mark denoting denomination was a deliberate nod to the Flemish accounting tradition, situating Amsterdam's new currency within a recognizable commercial framework at a moment when trust in any issuing authority was anything but guaranteed.