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

Here is a 2 Kreutzer from the German Countship of Pfalz-Simmen dated AD 1589:

1589 one year after the failure of the Spanish Armada to conquer England



1589 Dugn.3230, vLoonI.394.2, Tas259 'Spaanse Armada verslagen' -
Obv: queen Elizabeth I on a victory carriage praying 'Our Father (Onze Vader)'from the bible TANDEM · BONA · CAVSA · TRIVMPHAT
Rev: Birds nest attacked by bird of prey SI · NON · VIRIBVS · AT · CAVSA OBV

the quality of this jeton is such that the text Onze Vader (first two lines, one line per page) is readable

@pepactonius, in case you don't have the Iger attribution, it looks like R.89.1.a(R2) with lilies at top flanking III (mine has one lily at end of reverse legend).

Last day for Sigismund III coins.
I have another trojak from the Riga mint:

we will miss the posts of the familiar face of Sigismund Wasa on silver coins with so many interesting mint varieties - but edition VI will bring him back again !

for 1588 I have a jeton from the Northern provinces and a Philipsdaalder from the Spanish Netherlands

Jeton from Dordrecht, Dugn.3188, showing a (Dutch or English) family kneeling and thanking the Lord that the Spanish Armada was destroyed the reverse shows the broken ships; the obverse is special as there are not many coins/medals from that period showing children - here is an exception



the Philipsdaalder from Antwerp shows the portrait of an elderly king and a very clear mintmark of the city (a hand)





the name "Antwerpen" has been connected to the legend of a Roman Soldier Silvius Brabo who killed the nasty giant Antigoon and tossed his hand (Dutch "hand werpen") into the Scheldt river



if only we could stop of slow down the high-speed train of this thread and take time to reflect on what happened during 1588, a crucial year in the war between the United Provinces & England versus Spain.

Here is a short account (see excellent Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Armada).

Philip II had constructed an impressive fleet in the harbors of Northern Spain in order to launch a strategy to England. Only a few years earlier as we'll see soon, Elisabeth I had offered military help to Holland and Zeeland in order to resist the unstoppable successes of Alexander Farnese who conquered city after city for the Spanish Netherlands. Instead of concentrating on one target, the plan of Philip was to invade England with a huge armada that would important resources mobilize soldiers and artillery from the army of Flanders. Farnese was desperate when he heard the news of this plan, but he could only obey his king.

Farnese was right, the Armada was a very risky operation. Not only did the Spanish fleet fail to pick up the Flemish army and heavy artillery in the harbors of the Spanish Netherlands; it was under heavy attack by English war ships and early Autumn storms that pushed the Armada through the Channel East of England so that the ships needed to sail North over the tip of Scotland West and South again. Unfortunately heavy storms wrecked many ships on the Western coasts of Ireland. After heavy losses the remains of a shattered myth returned to Spain.

For England of Elisabeth I this unfolding of military events was a major victory. For the United Provinces it was a turning point, ending the "ten years of Farnese" and starting the "ten years of Maurits".
One could speculate that the disaster of the Armada was a starting point of a shift of power positions in Europe. Here is the famous 1588 Armada portrait of Elizabeth by George Gower.



below two contemporary impressions of the meeting between the Armada and English battle ships (forefront) in August 1588, (unknown artists)

1588 -- Kingdom of Hungary, 1 denar:

Thaler, Saxony, 1587

1587 -- Kingdom of France, 1/2 franc: