Introduction (3/3): The Liard - What To ExpectA lot of intro before I get going for real, but I want to limit posts to a reasonable length. It is nearing the end of the beginning, though.
I have more than 40 coins to show, all liards or oorden. They range from 1368 to 1794 and come from 20+ different issuers. I will divide the presentation into 30 posts, called Chapters. One or two coins in most posts, a few with three. It is a rather diverse set of coins, and the timelined "map" below is intended to bring some overview and structure to it all. Billon minting is greyish, copper minting brownish. France and associated feudalities use
livre and a
liard = 3 deniers, the Low Countries use
gulden (or
florin) and a
liard/oord = 2 duiten. I have entered as many issuers of liards/oorden as I have found - I hope I have placed them correctly (and I have almost certainly missed some). The circles, well, they represent the coins I will show, and the numbers refer to the Chapter they will be presented in.
Overview map of liards and oorden I will show, with timeline showing year.
Source: The decorative frame around the description is borrowed from a 1754 map by P. Gaultier. Wikipedia, public domain.Let's go through the Chapters:
1.
(Late 14th c.) I will start with the liard's companion, the billon
hardi. It originated in
Aquitaine in the 14th century, under English rule. The hardi, like the liard, was worth about 3 deniers.
2.
(Late 15th c.) The hardis were continued by the French kings when Aquitaine fell to the French.
3.
(Late 14th c.) The direct ancestor of the liard was the
ternalis, which was minted in
Dauphine, a feudality of the Holy Roman Empire. The feudality changed hands to France, to be ruled by the heir apparent to the French throne.
Dauphin is French for
dolphin, and that animal usually adorned the coins of Dauphine.
4.
(Early 15th c.) When Dauphine coinage was adapted to French royal standards, the ternalis changed name to
liard.
5.
(Late 15th c.) The first
French royal liards appeared in the 15th century, like the Dauphine liards made of billon, and like them featuring a dolphin.
6.
(16th c.) Eventually, the
French royal liards used other designs than the dolphin, although they stayed within a rather narrow design space with initials, crowns and crosses. And billon lives on.
7.
(1601) The last regular
French royal billon liard will have its own chapter.
8.
(Mid 16th c.) French feudalities followed the royals with their billon liards, many with designs remarkably similar to the royals.
Bearn was one of the first.
9.
(16th-17th c.) Another French feudality,
Dombes, was a notorious imitator of royal coins, liards and others.
10.
(Mid 17th c.) The city of
Metz came under French rule but kept its own minting standards and made its own type of liards.
11.
(Late 16th c.) Lorraine belonged to the Holy Roman Empire, but had close ties to France.
12.
(Mid 16th c.) Burgundy/Franche-Comte also belonged to the Holy Roman Empire, also with ties to France.
13.
(Late 16th c.) The first regular
copper liards (
statenoorden) were minted by several
Spanish Netherlands provinces and towns during the
Dutch Revolt in the 1570s.
14.
(Late 16th c.) Holland's liards during this period had a style of their own.
15.
(Late 16th c.) After the revolt, the southern provinces remained as the
Spanish Netherlands and continued minting of copper liards, first under Philip II . . .
16.
(Early 17th c.) . . . then Albert and Isabella . . .
17.
(Late 17th c.) . . . and Charles II.
18.
(1712) The War of the Spanish Succession that followed on the death of Charles II, led to competition for the rule over the
Spanish Netherlands and concurrent minting of liards by the claimants.
19.
(Mid 17th c.) As soon as the northern provinces formed the
Dutch Republic, aka the Seven Provinces, following the Dutch Revolt, they began minting. Copper liards/oorden arrived in the first years of the 17th century.
Friesland was one of the provinces minting such.
20.
(Mid 17th c.) Zeeland was the other (only two of the Seven Provinces cared to mint oorden).
21.
(Mid 17th c.) Liège and other feudalities belonging to the Holy Roman Empire were also early with copper liards/oorden.
22.
(1750) A hundred years later,
Liège mints the last liards/oorden.
23.
(Early 17th c.) French feudalities followed after the Low Countries with copper liards. The early ones are treated here.
24.
(Late 17th c.) Eventually
France itself caught up and began minting liards in copper in 1654.
25.
(Late 17th c.) Later liards from
French feudalities, with clear similarities to the French royals.
26.
(Early 18th c.) Montbeliard and
Lorraine are among the last areas under French influence to mint liards.
27.
(Late 18th c.) France keeps minting liards during the 18th century.
28.
(Late 18th c.) The
French revolution changed a lot, also the looks of the liards.
29.
(Late 18th c.) The Spanish Netherlands became the
Austrian Netherlands in 1714. Liards were minted until 1794.
30.
(19th-20th c.) To Be Disclosed.
The last liard was minted in the Austrian Netherlands in 1794 and it will be presented in the 29th chapter. But there is also a
Chapter 30, about how the liard - or at least its memory - lived on in certain 19th century coinage and even continued into the 2nd half of the 20th. (Some of you may know what I am referring to, the rest of you I will keep in suspense.
)
And yes, I promised to show you another liard in this post! Here it is, one of the early French coppers:
Liard, France 1656, Louis XIV, Limoges. Copper.
You will get to know more about it in Chapter 24!
A Couple of ExclusionsThere are at least two additional groups of liards or liard-like coins I have excluded from my presentation here (somehow I feel I will be showing enough
).
Firstly, a few Italian and Swiss city states minted billon liards in the late 16th century, many of which were in essence imitations of French and Burgundian liards. Not without interest, but I will not treat those here (but if you have a coin from them, feel free to post!).
Secondly,
½ groot or
1/4 stuiver coins in silver and later billon were minted by several Low Countries states before the copper era. From 1434, when the groot was standardized, a ½ groot was very close to the French (billon) liard looking at the silver content and it was later equal to the Low Countries liard/oord. I will, however, skip the grooten and their halves here (but again, if you have one, don't hesitate to show it - they seem to be quite uncommon).
Threepence, Trillina, . . .I limit my exposition to the
liards, and coins closely related to the liard. There are other, similar, "triple denominations" that could fit in a broader presentation. The English
threepence - 1/80th of a pound - is an obvious candidate (although an English threepence was worth about ten times more than a French liard already in the 1500s, and the discrepancy increased, so it was really a different kind of coin). Then we have the Italian (Milanese mostly)
trillina (or trelina/terlina) - worth 3 denari, 1/80th of a lira - which was minted from the mid-15th century and into the 17th century. There was also a Swiss variety, from the Grisons/Graubünden canton. Its trillina was minted for about 60 years around 1500 and was worth 3 half denars, or 1/64th of a testone. Worth mentioning is also the Polish
ternar or
trzeciak, valued at 3 denars in a system of thalers and grosz (number of denars on a grosz varying over time). There are probably others too.
SourcesA few words about my sources. For French coins I have used mainly the following reference literature (to which I will make references like "Dup 559"):
- Duplessy:
Les Monnaies Françaises Royales de Hugues Capet à Louis XVI (987-1793), Volumes I & II, 2nd ed., Maison Platt, 1999. [Dup]
- Duplessy:
Les Monnaies Françaises Feodales, Volumes I & II, Maison Platt, 2004 & 2010. [DupFeod]
- Crepin:
Liards de France royaux et feodaux (1607-1715), editions les Chevau-Legers, 2008. [C2G]
- Crepin:
Les hardis de la Maison de France (1453-1540), CGB Numismatique, 2015. [CHMF]
- Spink:
Coins of Scotland, Ireland and the Islands (Jersey, Guernsey, Man & Lundy) Including Anglo-Gallic Coins, 3rd ed., Spink & Son, 2015. [Spink]
- Morin:
Numismatique Feodale du Dauphine, Rollin, Paris, 1854.
Low Countries coins are generally not a collection area of mine, so I lack some of the relevant reference works. The great site
De Kopergeld Pagina, Numista and the following book is what I have used:
- Vanhoudt:
De Munten van de Bourgondische, Spaanse en Oostenrijkse Nederlanden, en van de Franse en Hollandse Periode (1434-1830), 2nd ed., Heverlee, 2019. [Vanhoudt]
I am happy to receive any corrections or additional information about the liard mintage in the Low Countries! (For French coins - my specialty - happy to receive corrections there too; will just pretend I knew all along.
)
Now, brace yourselves, 30 posts and 40+ liards are lining up to march into this thread! But don't worry, I will give it a day or so between posts, so you have time to breath.
Posted 04/20/2024 3:25 pm
