Halve crown, noodmunt van Jacobus II, koning van Engeland, uit juli 1690 1690 - 1697

This is an anonymous silver half crown coin, a piece of emergency money from July 1690 depicting Jacobus II, King of England. Its circular form encloses two distinct yet related faces, each imprinted with symbols and text that speak to power, authority, and crisis. Notice the profile of Jacobus II on one side, encircled by Latin script, and on the other, a crown surmounts crossed scepters with the inscription ‘REX’ woven amidst numeric indicators of value and date. The very materiality of silver, its weight and sheen, assert a claim to intrinsic worth, yet this is subverted by its status as ‘noodmunt’ or emergency money. The coin destabilizes fixed notions of value, where symbols of power are juxtaposed with the reality of economic instability. The formal elements, like the careful engraving and symbolic layout, point to a structured attempt to maintain authority through representation, even as the material conditions challenge such claims. The coin functions as a sign, open to ongoing interpretations about power, value, and representation.