See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration! or register with email

Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!

1 Daalder "Leeuwendaalder" Wignacourt Countermark

Issuer Order of Malta (Knights Hospitaller)
Year 1601-1622
Type Standard circulation coin
Value Log in to see details
Currency Log in to see details
Composition Log in to see details
Weight Log in to see details
Diameter Log in to see details
Thickness Log in to see details
Shape Log in to see details
Technique Log in to see details
Orientation Log in to see details
Engraver(s) Log in to see details
In circulation to Log in to see details
Reference(s) Log in to see details
Obverse description Log in to see details
Obverse script Log in to see details
Obverse lettering Log in to see details
Reverse description Log in to see details
Reverse script Log in to see details
Reverse lettering DEVS • FORTITVDO • ET • SPES • NOSTRA ❀
Edge Log in to see details
Mint Log in to see details
Mintage ND (1601-1622) - Host date: 1604
Additional information

Alof de Wignacourt served as Grand Master from 1601 to 1622, and the Order's chronic shortage of circulating silver during his tenure led to the systematic countermarking of Dutch Leeuwendaalders rather than striking entirely new coinage. The Netherlands was flooding Mediterranean trade routes with these coins, making them the logical host for a Hospitaller mark that could assert local authority without the expense of a full mint operation.

The Dutch originals were themselves a trade coin engineered for export — deliberately debased slightly below domestic standard to discourage melting. That the Order chose to countermark rather than remint speaks directly to the financial constraints of maintaining both a naval fleet and the Valletta fortifications simultaneously.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE