CNG 108, Lot: 1048. Estimate $1500. Sold for $4000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

DUTCH REVOLT (Nederlandse Opstand), Low Countries. Haarlem. Besieged by the Spanish under the command of Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel, Gran Duque de Alba, 11 December 1572-12 July 1573. AR Half Daalder Klippe (27x28mm, 14.37 g). Emission of 21 December 1572. Coat-of-arms above 1572 ; halve leeuw (lion rampant left [arms of Holland]) stamp above / Blank. P&W Ha 06; Gelder, Noodmunten, 11; Delmonte, Argent, 161; Maillet 2⁶; Lasser 1081; CNM 2.23.11. In NGC encapsulation, 4212890-005, graded AU 53. Toned.

Ex Archer M. Huntington Collection, ANS 1001.1.5950 (Numismatica Genevensis SA VII, 27 November 2012), lot 480.

In late 1572, the Spanish, commanded by Fernando Álvarez, Duke of Alba, besieged Haarlem. With nearly 20,000 troops, the Spanish assumed an easy victory, considering Haarlem had only 6,000 armed men. However, their two attempted assaults (one in December and the next in January of 1573) met with overwhelming resistance and resulted in considerable losses. In an attempt to taunt the Spanish soldiers, the well-supplied townspeople occasionally threw bread over the city walls and mounted statues plundered from Catholic churches on the ramparts. In July 1573, the Spanish were finally able to break the town’s supply line. With its food source gone, Haarlem was forced to surrender, thus ending the 10-month siege. The Spanish, hungry for vengeance, executed more than 1,700 of the town’s citizens.