Lot 760
Netherlands -- Holland. Leicester Real, 1586. Dav-8842; Delm-891. Laureate armored bust of the Earl of Leicester right. Reverse: Bundle of arrows within circle of six shields. Toned. Rare. NGC graded AU-53.
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, 1532(?)-1588, was an English courtier and a favorite of England's Queen Elizabeth I. The son of the Duke of Northumberland, Dudley was brought early into the society of then Princess Elizabeth and her brother Edward VI. On Elizabeth's accession to the throne, in 1558, Dudley was made Master of the Horse and, later, appointed privy councilor. Within a year he was acknowledged as Elizabeth's favorite, and regarded as the most probable choice for a husband. Elizabeth made him Earl of Leicester in 1564. In 1585 he was named commander of an expedition to the United Provinces of the Netherlands to aid in their resistance to Spain. While there, he enraged Elizabeth by accepting the appointment to the office of governor-general of the Netherlands, following the assassination of William the Silent.
During his stay in the Netherlands, Dudley was appalled at the chaos and complexity in the overlapping and competing monetary systems employed there. Being used to the regular and ordered currency of Elizabeth's England, he proposed remedies and an overhaul of their coinage. The guiding concept of Leicester's reform was that the United Provinces determine a uniform coinage, and each state would then issue amounts as needed. While he had no love for the states of Holland, he was perceptive enough to see that they should serve as the model for the new currency. Thus the two most important coins of this new system, the Hungarian-type gold Ducat and the Rijksdaalder, would dominate the area's coinage for centuries.
Estimated Value $1,500 - 2,000.
Ex Irving Goodman Collection.
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| Realized $3,840 |
