Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Maille of 4 mites - Philip II
| Issuer | Flanders, County of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1591-1593 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 1.8 g |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Armored bust of Philip II, King of Spain and Count of Flanders, facing right, wearing a laureate helmet and draped in plate armor with elaborate detail. The effigy is rendered in a bold, high-relief style typical of late 16th-century Flemish hammered coinage. A Latin circular legend surrounds the portrait within the coin's field, identifying the sovereign as King of Spain and Count of Flanders. The flan is irregular, as is characteristic of hammered production, with the legend partially visible around the periphery. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | PHS. D:G HISP Z REX. COM. FL. |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Philip II never set foot in Flanders, yet his administration's grip on the Low Countries monetary system was tight enough that even the smallest copper fractions bore his name through the prolonged agony of the Dutch Revolt. These pieces circulated during the years Parma's Army of Flanders was grinding through its campaign to hold the southern provinces — Ghent had already fallen, Antwerp in 1585, and what remained of Spanish Flanders was economically exhausted, dependent on emergency small change to keep local markets functioning at all.
The maille denomination itself was archaic by this point, a ghost of medieval Flemish monetary structure kept alive by the stubborn persistence of small-transaction demand.