Watch List notes:

MODERN COINS
A SPECIAL COLLECTION OF DUTCH AND DUTCH RELATED MEDALS

The Dutch Republic. Breda. Frederik Hendrik, Prince of Orange-Nassau, 1625- 1647. Medal (Silver, 69.5mm, 77.41 g 12), on the capture of Breda from the Spanish in 1637, by Jan Loof in Middelburg, 1637. (Tower)ANTE FAME AUT ASTU VI MODO FACTA VIA EST (=before by famine or guile, now by force of arms) Name of Jehovah in Hebrew, within frame of stars, clouds and rays, over the armored arm of Frederik Hendrik with upraised sword; below, view of the city of Breda; on the left, a canal boat filled with peat entering the walls of the city (a reference to the stratagem Maurice of Orange used to capture the city from the Spaniards in 1590); on the right, the personification of Breda, a crowned woman, being choked by the haggard personification of famine (a reference to the way Spinola starved the city into surrender in the siege of 1624/5); in the field to left, the artist's signature: CVM PRIVIL. / I.Loof f / FE.
Rev. Rich ivy wreath with the crowned arms of the United Provinces surrounding tablet bearing an inscription in fourteen lines: D.O.M.S. / Bredam / primo Belgar. in Tyrann. Regem / foedere nobilem; mox Mauritianae / navis faelici. insidius nobiliorem; / dein famelica March Spin obsidione /nobilissimam; tandem ausp. Poten- / tiss. Concord Belgii Patrium, omnes / bellandi gradus transcendens, / aperto Marte, gladiata Fr. Hernrici / Celsiss. Auria Pr destera Faederatae / Patria, Familiaeque suae restituit; / X. Octob. An. M.DC.XXXVII: / S.P.Q.F.B. (=Breda, by the grace of God already famous in the league against a tyrannical king, even more so by Maurice's clever trick with the boat, and by the way Spinola used famine to capture it, has now fallen by force of arms, under the auspices of the powerful and united fathers of the Netherlands, and the strong arm of Prince Frederik Hendrik, Prince of Orange - through his military skill the city has been returned to her country and to his family. 10 October 1637). Van Loon II, pp. 232-234, II. A superb, bright and sharp example. Minor edge knock on the obverse at 6:30, otherwise, extremely fine.

Breda was one of the main possessions of the House of Nassau, later Orange-Nassau, and was the scene of a number of stirring events during the Dutch war for independence. It fell to the Spanish in 1581 but was retaken in 1590 when Maurice of Nassau managed to smuggle 68 picked fighters into the city concealed within a barge filled with peat. The city was then starved into surrender by the Spaniards in 1625 but was finally recaptured by Frederik Hendrik after a four month siege in 1637.