Patas - Frédéric-Henri

Frederick Henry of Nassau ruled Orange as an absentee lord — his attention was consumed by his role as Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic and commander of its armies against Spain in the Eighty Years' War. The tiny principality, an enclave surrounded by French territory, issued its own copper coinage largely as a jurisdictional assertion rather than out of any genuine monetary need, a right the Nassau family defended jealously against persistent French encroachment.

Louis XIV ultimately abolished Orange's autonomy in 1672, rendering coinages of this period the last issued under anything resembling independent authority.