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Welcome Foreword Introduction Additions |
FOREWORDThis book seeks to complement and update the seminal work Les monnaies des Pays-Bas bourguignons et espagnols by H. Enno VAN GELDER & Marcel HOC (Amsterdam, 1960). It provides an overview of the centralized coinage in the Low Countries, from 1434 to 1830. The first year is based on the Ordinance of January 23, 1434, whereby Philip the Good organized a uniform coinage in his territories — the latter year coincides with the end of the common coinage under William I, King of the United Netherlands, due to the proclamation of the independence of Belgium in 1830. Administratively, Philip the Good’s territory was larger than the territory of the current Netherlands and Belgium combined. Since the souvereign usually stayed in Flanders or Brabant, they spoke of ‘countries hither about’ or ‘les Pays de par deça’, being the surrounding and adjacent areas, and the ‘countries thither about’ or ‘les Pays de par delà’, being the Burgundian territories in France. The coinage in the Low Countries is described here in the broadest sense with regard to the administrative territory (including Burgundy), and includes all the official emissions made by the reigning monarch, the obsidional coins in this period, and other special emissions such as piedforts, presentation coins, etc. The aim is to combine as much information as possible in this work. Additions and corrections to this book will be available at www.hugovanhoudt.be. This book is the result of years of effort and could not have been brought to a good end without the help of many people who have assisted me in several ways, even small, by letting me visit their collection, by providing me information and illustrations, etc. My most sincere thanks go to the many numismatists, collectors and public institutions which have helped me, and especially to Mr. Jan MOENS, who has displayed an inexhaustible energy in attacking the many layout tasks I have given to him; without him, this book would never have been published. I also like to make a special mention to Mr. Willem VAN DEN NIEUWENHOF and John SAUNDERS, who were involved in the complete catalog, to Mr. Alain FOSSION (French) and Robert LEVINSON (English), who took the foreign-language texts on their behalf, and to Mr. Bert VAN BEEK and Ronald WIENTJES, who were mainly involved with the complex Burgundian period. Hugo VANHOUDT Heverlee, March 1st, 2015 |