★ Imitations of the English Noble in the Low Countries ★

LOW COUNTRIES, Vlaanderen (Flanders). Filips de Stoute (the Bold). 1384-1404. AV Gouden nobel (34.5mm, 7.71 g, 9h). Gand (Ghent), Mechelen (Mechlin), and Brugge (Bruges) mint. P h’S DЄI GRA DVX BVRG COmЄS Z Dn’S FLAnD’, half-length figure of king standing facing within ship, holding sword and shield / + Ih’C ΛVTЄm TRΛnSIЄnS PЄR mЄDIV ILLORVm IBΛT, cross fleurdelisée and feuillue; in center of cross, rosette within angled quadrilobe; in each quarter, crown above lion passant left; all within tressure of eight arches; trefoils in spandrels; double saltire stops. Cf. Grierson, Coins of Medieval Europe C24 (noble of Edward III; for prototype) ; V&S 278; Vanhoudt G2632; Delmonte, Or 474; Friedberg 169. Minor die rust. Toned. EF. Strong portrait.

From the Richard A. Jourdan Collection of Medieval European Coins, purchased from Charles H. Wolfe, III, 2004.

Flanders was the key market for wool, England’s most valuable export. English authorities insisted that Flemish merchants pay for wool in English coin. Numerous imitations, both official and unofficial, of the gold Noble, the principle English trade coin, was the inevitable result.