How Far Back Can We Go? Seventh Edition! Ended At 1380 Waiting On 1379

Back to Hungary for me today with this 1590-dated Denar:

It just amazes me at the condition of many of the early coins in this thread, especially many of these early coppers!

thanks AcesKings and tdziemia

what is strange is the element time: approximately the distance in time of now to the American Revolution equals the time back from the American Revolution to the start of the Dutch revolt.

Many aspects of the two revolutions are equal: the underdog (at start) fighting against a superpower, struggle for freedom, declaration of independence to name a few

1589

This year marks a turning point in the 80-year war: with the defeat of the Spanish armada, on board of some of the ships that vanished in the sea was part of the Spanish army of Flanders together with many pieces of artillery that Alexander Farnese used in his spectacular series of sieges the decade before. Both England and the United Provinces benefited from this turn of events.

The jeton below depicts the joy of England to be spared from an invasion of the most powerful army of those times. Queen Elizabeth I is shown being seated on a chariot reading the bible.



Dugniolle 3230 'Spanish Armada defeated'
OBV: The queen on a chariot reading the bible TANDEM BONA CAVSA TRIVMPHAT (the good cause triumphs in the end)
REV: bird of prey attacks nest os birds SI NON VIRIBVS AT CAVSA POTIORES (I could not have this done better)

On the best preserved surviving pieces one can read the first lines of the holy father (in Dutch) ONSE VADER IN DE HEMEL // UWEN NAAM WORDE GEHEILIGD, which is quite amusing as Elizabeth of course would read a Latin or English version of the bible. Perhaps the pun of this jeton was that the first English translation of the bible was done by William Tyndale, who fled to the Spanish Netherlands, where he was executed on accusation of heresy in 1536.

Another interesting detail is a so far unrecognised die variant of the obverse, with a pulling rope in front of the chariot as shown below. This variant is not mentioned by Dugniolle, and perhaps needs to be classified as Dugn. 3230a


Finally for today, two other jetons from the United Provinces:



Dugn.3231 Dordrecht 'Maurits as Lord of Monster'
OBV: coats of arms of Orange & Monster MAVR CO NAS MAR VER ET VLIS DNS DE MONSTER
REV: Arm holds sword IE MAINTIENDRAI // 1589

Monster is the funny name for a village on the Dutch coast, near The Hague. JE MAINTIENDRAI (French for I will persevere) would become two centuries later the adage of the Kindom of the Netherlands.



Dugn.3233 Utrecht 'Maurits chosen as Stadhouder'
OBV Farmer sowing DEVS DAT INCREMENTVM 1589
REV Farmer harvesting SPE INCERTA CERTVM MIHI LABOREM SVSTVLI

the image of the obverse is classical and would be repeated by the design by Roty of the silver coins of the third French Republic 1, 2, and 5 FR "la semeuse"

1588

Late summer in the year 1588 witnessed the failure of the first Spanish Armada. A large fleet had been assembled the previous months in Spain with the purpose to invade England. The fleet set sail the 28th of May that year in Lisbon and in made its desastrous journey: first through the English Channel and then counterclockwise around the British isles. The first goal was to pick up part of the army of Flanders in the Spanish Netherlands and then sail across the Channel to invade England. However, this plan completely failed because of the combined actions of the English & Dutch navy and weather conditions. When the Spanish fleet was anchored near Calais, the English navy set loose a pack of burning barges loaded with gunpowder that floated with the wind towards the Armada. The Spanish ships needed to cut their own anchors and a strategic crescent formation of the fleet was lost. The next day Dutch and English ships benefited from the chaos among the Spanish ships and inflicted heavy losses during the battle of Gravelines (a town between the harbors of Calais and Dunkirk). The following weeks, unfavorable winds carried the remaining Spanish galleons north, along the eastern British coastline up to the tip of Scotland, then west and finally south along the tricky rocks of Ireland where many ships wrecked because of the storm.

The jeton of today remembers the defeat of the Armada. On the obverse one can see a family (Dutch or English - parents and two children), who thank the lord for what had just happened. On the reverse, a big Spanish naval ship is broken in two parts, some soldiers on deck jump or fall into the North sea.



Dugniolle 3188 Dordrecht 'Destruction of the Spanish Armada'
OBV: Family (parents and two children) thank God for the turn of events HOMO PROPONIT DEVS DISPONIT 1588
REV: Broken Spanish galleon HISPANI FVGIVT ET PEREVT NEMINE SEQVETES

The failure of the 1588 Armada was a turning point in the 80-years war: it arrested a decade of political and military successes of Alexander Farnese (the Duke of Parma) as will be illustrated in this thread the coming week.

HOMO PROPONIT DEVS DISPONIT (Man proposes but God decides) (Dutch: De mens wikt, maar God beschikt) is an interesting Legend on the obverse. The man who proposed and decided to carry out a risky plan was King Philippe II of Spain, seen on a Philipsdaalder of Antwerp, 1588, annotated as delm.18). DOMINVS MIHI ADIVTOR (The Lord, my helper, the adage of Philipe) did not work with this operation.



Farnese wept when he heard of the plans to launch an armada with the goal to conquer England. His anticipation turned out to be justified. About 50 ships of the Armada perished in August 1588, and between 10 and 20 thousand Spanish soldiers, many from Farnese's army of Flanders, lost their lifes on sea. A tragedy for the Spanish empire that certainly influenced the time-driven chain of events called history.

thanks, Numisrob

here another example of the same jeton, of lesser quality, except for the date, which is poorly readible in the example above



finally a painting of the Armada in problems near Calais because of the fire barges unleashed by the English

1587 Austria Thaler minted in Kremnitz

1587

To tell a story backwards is a challenge ... but I'll keep trying to make a coherent story.

It was not known this year that the defeat of the Armada (August 1588) would implicate the end of the presence/influence of Alexander Farnese in the low countries. As we saw last weeks, his activities moved to Northern France.

His succes the past decade in the Spanish Netherlands had been impressive. Between 1579 and 1588 he recaptured many towns and cities in the Southern Provinces of the low countries and thereby accomplished the creation of borders that more or less define the current countries of the Netherlands and Belgium. Farnese departed from largescale chaos after the fury of Antwerp (1576) that created the "third revolt" against Spain.

Farnese could convince many in the Spanish Netherlands to remain loyal to the king and he undertook a well conceived military operation against the rebels. The situation of the revolting United Provinces became more precarious after the assassination of its leader William of Orange (1584). The Dutch needed new leadership and help was asked from England. Queen Elizabeth I responded with financial support and sent Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester to the Netherlands. Leicester came to the Netherlands in 1587 and remained in charge for military operations only for two years: he failed on many points, especially on the East border (the IJssel towns Deventer and Zutphen were lost to Spain).

A numismatic trace back to this period are the beautiful Leicester-daalders and Leicester-realen, taler-sized silver pieces that were created with great care in the United Provinces (Holland, Zeeland, Gelderland, Utrecht and Friesland) (Overijssel would follow later). These hand-cut and -hammered pieces are of great design and among the best of silver pieces produced in that period. Below an example from the mint of Dordrecht, province of Holland:



Leicesterdaalder type 1 Holland 1587, Delm. 900
OBV: earl of Leicester holds sword and bundle of six arrows CONCORDIA RES PARVAE CRESCV HOL
REV: coat of arms of the six united provinces 1587. MO ORD PROVIN FOED BELGA AD LEG IMP

Also from Dordrecht is the jeton below annotated as Dugn.3143. It is a piece of propaganda of the Northern Provinces as it opposes on the one hand a situation of hunger and poverty in the Netherlands under Spanish rule and on the other hand abundance in the Northern revolting provinces.



Dugniolle 3143 Dordrecht 'Poverty and hunger in Artois'
OBV: Spanish soldier stands between the allegoric figures Hunger & Death 1587 legend: MVLTA SVNT MALA IMPIORVM (there are many evils of the wicked)
REV: Horn of abundance DABITVR (it will be given) legend: QVI DNO FIDIT BONITATE EIVS CIRCVM (he that trusteth in the Lord, shall have goodness around him)