The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

KOYAL NUMISMATIC SOCIETY. 39
organized by Mr. Hill in the Coin Department of the
British Museum, illustrating the relation not always a
very creditable one of the mediaeval " Esterlings " of what
is now Belgium to the English pennies, and giving examples
of coins and medals belonging to that part of the Low
Countries down to Napoleon's time. Among the interesting
medals here exhibited are specimens referring to the Govern-
FIG. 2.
ment of the Duke of Alva, to the Siege of Brussels by the
Spaniards in 1579, of Tournai in 1581, of Ypres in 1583,
and of Antwerp by Alessandro Farnese in 1585. Two
medals record the victory of Prince Maurice over the
Spaniards at Turnhout in 1597, and of the same in associa-
tion with Sir Francis de Vere over Albert of Austria at Nieu-
port in 1600. But the piece which has the most direct
pertinence to current events is that of which an illustration
is given in Fig. 2, commemorating, in a singular manner,
the oppression of the Netherlands by the Spaniards and
Austrians.
The obverse of this piece suggests nothing unusual. It