LOW COUNTRIES, Vlaanderen (Flanders). Lodewijk II van Male. 1346-1384. AV Gouden lam – Mouton d’or (30mm, 4.58 g, 12h). Gand (Ghent) and Mechelen (Mechlin) mint. Struck 1356-1364. + ΛGn’ : DЄI : QVI : TOLL : P¯CCΛ : mVDI : MISЄRЄRЄ : nOB’ (double annulet stops),
agnus Dei standing left, head upturned right, wearing nimbus crown and cradling banner on long cross fleurée; LVD CO : F’ below; all within polylobe / + : XP’C : VIИCIT : XPC : RЄGИΛT : XPC : IИPЄRΛT (double pellet and double saltire stops), voided cross fleurée over short voided cross potent; at center, cinquefoil within polylobe; eagle in each angle; all within polylobe, with lis in each spandrel. Elsen 26; Delmonte,
Or 457; De Mey,
Flanders 188; Vanhoudt 2601; Den Duyts 166; Friedberg 155. In NGC encapsulation 6455612-003, graded MS 63. A beautifully struck specimen. Toned with rich golden luster. Conservatively graded in our opinion.
‘The mouton, so called because of the Agnus Dei to which the obverse design and legend were devoted, was first issued in France by John the good in 1355, but its antecedents went back to of Philip IV named, more reverently, the agnel. The French king no doubt selected the type out of piety, but it was probably the mundane association of the sheep with the textile industry which made the coin a popular subject for imitation by the princes of the Netherlands.’ John Porteous Coins in History
