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

1599 here is another jeton, from Dordrecht, hoping this story told backwards is not too boring.

Dugniolle.3468 'Spanish military planning in Maastricht'



Obv. Cardinal Andries and general Mendoza meet to plan new military operations in the Netherlands INVITO NVMINE CIC IC XCIX
Rev. Cardinal Andries leads the Spanish army onwards to war 'Rhine Expedition'; but his progress is hindered by the hand of Jahweh FRVSTRA CONATVR INPIVS

below the rare jeton I like most of all

1599, Antwerpen 'marriage of Isabella Clara Eugenia, infante of Spain, and archduke Albert of Austria'



in 1598, when king Phillippe II of Spain died, Flanders and Brabant were heavily damaged by the atrocities of war that started in 1566, 30 years earlier! The city of Antwerp, which was so prosperous before 1566, suffered enormously. The marriage of the archdukes brought new hope for a ravaged country. The legend around the Lion of Brabant summarizes it well:

SPES ALTERA FLANDRIS





In the mean time the war front was up North, along the great rivers and along the east borders between the United Provinces and Germany. The armies of Maurice of Nassau and general Mendoza were trying to avoid open battle, laying siege to cities and other fortified strongholds like trying to catch pieces on a chess game. Below four jetons that summarize some of the events from 1598

Dugn.3441, Utrecht, crying out of the atrocities of war; the capture of the castle of Valkenstein by Mendoza who murdered count Ulrich personally. Normally, after capture of a place, the residents could leave the place unharmed (after payment of a handsome price).




Dugn.3446 and Dugn.3449, both from Dordrecht, showing the cat and mouse game of the two armies around Doesburg, a small town situated dangerously close to the heart of the United Provinces. Manoevering techniques of prince Maurits prevailed and the 'Garden of Holland' was not invaded again (like in 1572) by Spanish troops. Using tetragrammata on both sides of these jetons, it is clear that the United Provinces believed that a divine force helped them to win the war.




And finally a war propaganda jeton, Dugn.3441, from Dordrecht predicting that those who mess up with Jahweh will get their deserved punishment in the end.

A pair of 1598 trojaks from the Poland-Lithuania commonwealth, illustrating the short-lived use (1598-1606) of letter mintmarks (and, along with @giljan's coin, the variety in Sigismund portraits across different mints):
Bydgoszcz (B after 98 at bottom of reverse):



Poznan (P in front of 98 at bottom of reverse); auction house photo, coin not yet received:

in the Low Countries, both South and North, the mint marks were symbols; moreover, the province was usually mentioned in the Legend and the provincial coat-of-arms is somewhere represented, often a the centered image

here is an example, a 1598 Leeuwendaalder (Lion Dollar) from Zeeland, with a Middelburg mintmark (castle tower reverse 12h), the Lion-in-the-sea as the provincial coat-of-arms and mention of Zeeland (ZEL) in the legend on the obverse

I really like that symbol for Zeeland!

For this timeframe of the Poland trojaks, we have the mints using a combination of identifiers:
- Livonian mint (Riga) uses the castle, and "CIVI RIGE" in legend reverse
- Lithuanian mint (Vilnius) uses the local mintmaster's symbol, and "GROS ARG TRIP M D L" reverse (silver 3 groschen of Grand DUchy of Lithuania). We will see one of these tomorrow.
- Crown mints (Olkusz, Poznan, Bydgoszcz, Malbork, Wschowa, Lublin) use combination of the marks of the royal treasurer and the local mintmaster 1588-1597, then all but Olkusz switch to a letter.

Rather confusing!

It seems the Riga mint was very busy in the 1590s.
The Riga trojaks must have been minted in large quantities. Each year from 1590-99 the most common variety does not earn an "R," and there are many on the market, including some graded MS, most of which are not terribly expensive for such condition https://www.coinarchives.com/w/resu...&results=100