Liard 'Aidant' - Ferdinand of Bavaria

Ferdinand of Bavaria held the see of Liège from 1612 until his death in 1650, simultaneously controlling a cluster of ecclesiastical territories including the imperial abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy — an arrangement that concentrated unusual temporal and spiritual authority in a single Wittelsbach hand. The abbey's right to strike its own coinage was hard-won and frequently contested by neighboring powers. These liards, issued under the Latin motto referencing aid or assistance, belong to the final years of Ferdinand's long tenure, struck as the Thirty Years' War ground toward its conclusion and small copper coinage was in chronic short supply across the region.