Filips II, koning van Spanje, rekenpenning van de rekenkamer van Vlaanderen 1597

This is a copper coin featuring Filips II, King of Spain, made anonymously for the Chamber of Accounts of Flanders. Coins like this were not merely currency; they were tools used by the monarchy to disseminate power and influence. How intriguing that the minting of coins, emblems of imperial authority, was often outsourced, blurring the lines between state power and private enterprise. What did it mean for the image of a king to be produced by anonymous hands? Consider that as Flanders was under Spanish rule, the image of Filips II would have evoked a complex mix of authority, foreign rule, and perhaps, resentment among the local population. It makes you wonder about the silent stories each coin carries, of the hands it passed through, and the transactions it facilitated, each a small echo of a larger political narrative.