Inname van Steenwijk, Ootmarsum en Coevorden door Maurits, graaf van Nassau 1592

This silver medal commemorates the seizure of Steenwijk, Ootmarsum, and Coevorden by Maurits, Count of Nassau, though its maker remains anonymous. Reflecting the political climate of the time, the medal serves as propaganda, celebrating military victories. The imagery encapsulates the fraught relations between the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Empire, during the Eighty Years' War. The Latin text inscribes a triumphant narrative of conquest and expulsion, highlighting the Republic's military successes. What does it mean to stamp such a history onto something as small as a coin, making it a token of power? The cities, represented as a collective, lack individual stories, overshadowed by the singular narrative of Maurits' triumph. This medal not only symbolizes power but also prompts reflection on the selective nature of historical narratives. It leaves us to consider whose stories are told and whose are erased in the forging of national identity.