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Liard - Maurice of Nassau
| Issuer | Principality of Orange |
|---|---|
| Year | 1618-1625 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Reverse description | The reverse presents a bold floriated or multi-armed cross occupying the central field, its arms terminating in decorative cusps and dividing the flan into four quarters. The cross design, characteristic of small feudal billon coinage of the period, is rendered with confident if rudimentary die-cutting. The surrounding Latin legend SOLI. DEO. HONOR. ET. G. — an abbreviated devotional inscription meaning 'To God alone honor and glory' — runs along the periphery of the irregularly shaped flan. Significant areas of green cuprous patina are visible across the surface, consistent with the billon alloy and centuries of burial or environmental exposure. The edge is plain and the flan shows the typical scalloped irregularity resulting from hand-cut planchet preparation. |
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| Additional information |
The Principality of Orange was a tiny sovereign enclave surrounded entirely by French territory, which made its coinage rights both jealously guarded and politically fraught. Maurice of Nassau, who held the principality while leading the Dutch revolt against Spain as Stadtholder, used Orange's minting privilege largely as a matter of dynastic prestige rather than economic necessity — the principality's population was small enough that local monetary demand was negligible. The Dh Orange gap in the references suggests this type was either unknown or excluded from Dhénin's survey, a not uncommon situation for minor billon fractions from this enclave.