How Far Back Can We Go? Fifth Edition! Ended At 1461 Waiting On 1460 C. E. (A. H. 864)

Solidus, Riga, Livonia, 1601

Oops I forgot the submit the draft I prepared
Soryy



Duchy of Brabant
Real no date
Heersers: Albert & Isabella (1598-1621)
Mint: Antwerp (between 1603-1607)
ALBERTUS.ET.ELISABET.D.G.
ALBERTUS ET ELISABETH DEI GRATIA
Albert and Isabelle, by the grace of God
PHS.D.G.HISP.Z.REX.DUX.BR.
PHILIPPUS DEI GRATIA HISPANIARUM Z REX DUX BARBANTIÆ
ARCHIDUCES.AUST.DUCES.BURG.ET.BRAB
ARCHIDUCES AUSTRIÆ DUCES BURGUNDIA ET BRABANTIÆ
Archdukes of Austria and Dukes of Burgundy and Brabant
Literature: Van Gelder / Hoc 293-1

Jeton
1601
Low Countries
Siege of Rheinberg
HOSTIS DIRA MINITANS BERCA PELLITVR 1601

IRATO NVMINE NIL IVVANT VNDIQ COLLECTAE VIRES
Count of Berg (top in the middle) with his army. Army trumpeter on the left and drummer on the right. Collected troops to redeem the besieged Spanish troops. In a cloud at the top of the word "Jehovah" in Hebrew
Struck in Dordrecht (rose)
literature: Dugniolle III-IV, p. 167, no. 3517
Van Loon I, p. 558

1601 Dugn.3521 Dordrecht, United Provinces: 'sieges of Rheinbergh and Oostende'
tetragrammata on both sides being part of the images, spreading the message: "God is on our side"



Obverse: Rheinberg surrounded by the troops of Maurice of Naussau. Rays from the heavens shine on the tents of Maurice & co.
HANC CAPIMVS VIRTVTE DEI ("this place was taken with the help of God")

Reverse: Oostende (with Dutch/English ships on the forefront) under attack, but protected by the heavens. DEFENDIMVS ISTAM ("let us defend this place") CIC ICCI / SC

Prince Maurice of Naussau left with a 10,000 strong army the sieged city of Oostende in 1601 and moved 200 miles to the North-East to lay siege to the small town of Rheinbergh (today in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany - then on the East borders of the Dutch Republic). The idea was to draw Spanish military focus away from Oostende, as said before, a very important stronghold for the Dutch and English. After a siege of a few months Rheinbergh indeed surrendered. The siege of Oostende, however, defended at that moment by Francis Veere and the English forces, would last for another three years causing an enormous amount of bloodshed.

Rheinbergh (Rijnberk) would become an important point of defense of the Dutch Republic on the East borders after 1601. The structure of a 17th century defense line cannot be better illustrated than by this painting (from 1672 - Rijksmuseum Amsterdam) when king Louis XIV made is big military move to conquer the Netherlands. Here his army is near the fortifications of Rheinbergh.

splendid coin

As we enter the 16th century and the first 13 years of Sigismund's reign, we will see some trojaks (3 groschen) with lots of variety. While my comments will not be as interesting as the political history we have been learning, they will give some numismatic context for the Siggy coins of the next two weeks.
When minting of silver coins under Sigismund III began in 1588, production began at the same 5 mints that were in operation under his predecessor, King Stefan Batory. These were: the "crown mints" of Olkusz and Poznan in historical Poland, the Gdansk city mint in former West Prussia, the Lithuanian mint in Vilnius, and the Livonian mint in Riga.
The trojak, or 3 groschen, was the largest circulating silver denomination for the first 8 years (1588-95); minting of trojaks began in Olkusz, Poznan and Riga in 1588, and Vilnius in 1589.
Four more crown mints produced trojaks in the 1590s: Malbork (1592-94), Bydgoszcz and Wschowa (Bromberg and Fraustadt in German, 1594-1601), and Lublin (1595-1601). Krakow, which had not minted coins since 1549 began in 1600.

Each of the 9 mints that produced trojaks between 1588 and 1601 designed its own bust of Sigismund, sometimes even changing the bust within a date/year, and varied the reverse to include the emblem of local mint officials. In 1598, some of the crown mints adopted the use of a letter as mint mark. So we see B for Bydgoszcz/Bromberg, P for Poznan, L for Lublin and F for Fraustadt/Wschowa (which had previously used a mint mark in medieval times). I guess this innovation was copied from the French, as there were strong links between Poland and France at this time (the Polish-Lithuanian parliament had elected the future Henry III of France as their own king in 1574).

So the trojaks produced between 1588 and 1601 present an enormous amount of variation for collectors, and were produced in significant enough quantity to make many varieties fairly accessible. For anyone who needs to catalog a trojak, you can use the detailed Iger system through the WCN website http://iger.wcn.pl/
If you are curious about what's on the market, this September auction has over 200 trojaks in higher grades starting at lot 1204. https://onebid.pl/en/aukcje/879948/749/7/0/0 . Early trojaks can be found elsewhere (WCN, most German auction houses, even ebay) at more modest prices in lower grades, and as lots.

@pepactonius, nice date series from Spain and now this German city-state.

I have one more for 1601, this 1 lira of Tuscany, Ferdinando I de Medici, picturing the beheading of John the Baptist:



Cracked planchet, maybe some delamination obv, and harshly cleaned.