Featured United States of Belgium / Brabant Revolution / Insurrection Coinage

There's a funny story about this coinage. From both the 10 sols piece and the florin are two versions. If you take a close look at the paper with the different designs (earlier in this thread) you can see that one variant reads "MON*NOV*ARG*PROV*FOED*BELG" and "IN UNIONE SALUS" and the other version reads "DOMINI EST REGNVM' and "ET IPSE DOMINABITUR GENTIVM". The first version was issued first. The coin production had already started when a scolar noted that the text in latin was all wrong. The obverse wasn't the problem and translates: New silver coin from the United Provinces of the Netherlands. But the reverse was hiding a big mistake. The inscription should be a different version of "Concordia res parvae crescunt" (small things flourish by unity), but that slogan was already in use by the Northern Netherlands. A simple version of this motto in French was "l'union fait la force" which means "unity is strength". In stead of using Concordia Res Parvae Crescunt, someone tried to translate the more simple French version quite wrongly into Latin and came up with "IN UNIONE SALUS" which later turned out to mean "Hail to the onion". When this mistake was noticed some 53.000 10-sols and 35.000 florins had been struck and had already been distributed. So all the dies were replaced and now they had the inscription Domini etc. which means "The Kingdom is from the Lord and he will rule over his people". This second emission is smaller, 23.000 10-sols and 25.000 florins. Conclusion: the "In unione Salus version is slightly more common than the "ET Ipse Dominabitur" version.

 

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This may be the largest online viewing of Belgium indirection coinage online...maybe.

 

Oh, I meant that he is not the best engraver in the history of engraving coins, not limited to Belgium but I should say that is personal preference. I would say he is part of a pantheon of great engravers through history though. Thanks for the correction btw...it looked like his work to my eye.

 

Most of the best engravers where employed by the Holy Roman Empire.

 

Van Berckel was first of all a medalist. His medal designs in general and his portraits on medals are on a very high artistic level. He can be compared in that respect with famous die cutters like Hedlinger, Dassier, Mauger, Donner and Krafft. Coin designs from the Holy Roman Empire were centralized from Vienna, which meant that the artistic contribution of the Chief engraver was limited. In fact, Van Berckel only made the hubs for the portraits of the rulers. There was a whole team of other employees that produced the coin dies. The coins for the Brabant revolution were for the bigger part his work however. And he also designed and executed many wonderful medals for the Austrian Netherlands and for other clients. I will post examples of some of his best work here if you like.

 

Without doubt he was an exceptional talent, I never meant to say otherwise so I hope nothing I have said came off put that in question. I have posted here a few other examples of his work and I have personally seen his earlier work like city council comemorative medals, marriage medals, portrait medals, etc. Some of the work he produced when he was in business for himself. All exceptional work.

Please feel free to post anyhing you would like, I would love to see more of his work.

 

When you say Civic Issue, Do you mean sold or given to to the general pubic.
Do you think the token I posted would be considered a Civis Issue?

 

Yes, I think civic issues would be like your medal. Issued for state or local governments or the city council medals he and his father produced.

 

The government of the Austrian Netherlands issued a New Years medal each year starting from 1717. The obverse had the portrait of the governor. Those portraits were made with the same hub. But Van Berckel started something new by slightly changing the cloths and hair cuts from Marie Christine of Archduchess of Austria and her husband Albert Duke of Saxony-Tess each year. Long time ago I made this animated picture which hopefully works here. It will show you exactly what I mean. It could take a few seconds to load, so please be patient. Enjoy watching.

 

I love that!

Albert was appointed as Governor of the Austrian Netherlands by the Habsburg Maria Theresa who was Maria Josepha's (his mother) first cousin. His mother's father was the Habsburg emperor Joseph I. Christina Archduchess of Austria was the daughter of Maria Theresa so even after the disastrous results if inbreeding in the Habsburg family which Maria Theresa somewhat broke with her marriage to Francis and having 16 children, they were still doing it.

 

They somehow all were connected by family ties and have been since the House Habsburg was founded. It led to all kind of physical and mental instabilities. Maria Theresia's great-grandson, and second Emperor of Austria-Hungary Ferdinand I was defective and totally incapable to rule. He was succeeded by his nephew Franz Joseph, who's dad was also demented, but his mother princess Sophie from the house of Wittelsbach brought some fresh blood into the Habsburg family. Unfortunately Franz Joseph married her niece Elisabeth. The story we all know is very romantic, but the truth was not so enchanting.

 

After what happened with Leopold I, I am surprised they did not change their ways. His "hogmouth" jaw was directly result of inbreeding.
Plus, as Emperor, why not have the prettiest girls summoned to Vienna, for the Emperor to pick as future wife Its a win/ win.

 

Leopold had the jaw problem but he was not the worst case by far. Charles II of Spain the Bewitched was a worst case. He was the son of Philip IV of Spain and Mariana of Austria who were uncle and niece making Charles their great-nephew and first cousin respectively, as well as their son. They were themselves products of inbreeding down the line. The results of this in the person of Charles was as bad as one might imagine.

And as Lei mentioned, even after the Habsburg Lorraine union they did it again and one of the worst cases was Ferdinand I who was wracked with debilitating seizures and mental problems. His mother and father were double first cousins, that is they were cousins through both parents. He had as many as twenty seizures per day and was
a hydrocephalic among many other problems.

I went through a phase where I was obsessed with that family

 

Not the truest portrait for sure.

This one is more accurate. It should be said that the people liked him and he gained the sobriquet 'the good' and 'the benign' but he had to step down for obvious reasons.