Alkmaar (15)73 1/4 daalder
This specimen was lot 1225 in Jean Elsen sale 162 (Brussels, June 2025), where it sold for €460 (about US$638 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[1] noted,
"NEDERLAND, ALKMAAR, belegerd door don Frederik (21 augustus 1573-9 oktober 1573), tinnen gegoten kwart daalder, emissie oktober 1573. Eenzijdig. Vz/ Grote burcht tussen 7-3. Zeldzaam. De kleine stempelbeschadiging op de parelrand (2 uur) en de holte naast de rand (3 uur) komen op de originele stukken voor. (Netherlands, city of Alkmaar, besieged by Don Fadrique August 21-Ocotber 9, 1573, quarter daalder cast in pewter of October 1573, uniface. Obverse: city gate divides the two digit date. Rare, Very Fine. The defects at 2 o'clock and 3 o'clock were in the original molds.)"
Wikipedia comments, "The siege of Alkmaar was a turning point in the Eighty Years' War. The burghers of the Dutch city of Alkmaar held off the Spanish (who had set up their camp in Oudorp) between 21 August and 8 October 1573, with boiling tar and burning branches from their renewed city walls. On 23 September William the Silent followed up on a request by Cabeliau dating from the beginning of the siege and ordered the dikes surrounding Alkmaar to be breached, thereby flooding the polders in which the Spanish troops were camped, like the Achtermeer polder. This forced the Spanish commander, Don Fadrique, to retreat and the last Spanish soldiers left on 8 October 1573."
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: pewter, this specimen 7,46 g.
Catalog reference: van Gelder 49; Mailliet 1, 3; CNM 2.01.03.
- Korchnak, Lawrence C., Siege Coins of the World, 1453-1902, Lancaster, PA: Classical Numismatic Group, 2021.
- van Gelder, H. Enno, and Marcel Hoc, Les Monnaies des pays-Bas Bourguignons et Espagnols, 1434-1713, Amsterdam, J. Schulman, 1960, with supplement of 1964.
- van der Wis, Jan, and Tom Passon, Catalogus van de Nederlandse Munten geslagen sind bet aantreden van Philips II tot aan het einde van de Bataafse Republiek (1555-1806), 2nd ed., Apeldoorn, Netherlands: Omni-Trading b.v., 2009.
- [1]Elsen, Philippe, et al., Vente Publique 162: Collection Jacques Druart, Brussels: Jean Elsen et ses Fils S.A., 2025.
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