(sold for $139.0)

1653, Spanish Netherlands, Brabant, Philip IV. Silver Ducaton Coin. Anvers mint!

Region: Brabant Mint Year: 1653 Denomination: Ducaton (Ducatone) Mint Place Anvers (privy mark: hand) Reference: Davenport 4454, KM-72.1. Condition: Mint-made planchet striae, wekly struck central part (due to a shallow planchet), minor deposits and a few scratches, otherwise VF+ Diameter: 45mm Material: Silver Weight: 32.3gm

Obverse: Draped and armoured bust of Philip IV with large collar right and faced shoulder drapery. Legend: P H I L . I I I I . D . G . H I S P . E T . I N D I A R . R E X . 1 6 (privi mark: hand) 5 3 . Expanded: PHILIPPVS IIII DEI GRATIA HISPANIARUM ET INDIARUM REX Translation: "Philip IIII by the Grace of God, King of the Spains and the Indies"

Reverse: Lions supporting crowned shield shield with coat of arms of the Spanish line of the House of Habsburg . Legend: . A R C H I D . A V S T . D V X . B V R G . B R A B . Z °. Translated: "Archduke of Austria, Duke of Burgundy and Brabant"

Philip IV minted coins with his effigy in the Spanish Netherlands, while in Spain large coins only showed heraldic symbols.

The Duchy of Brabant was a State of the Holy Roman Empire established in 1183. It developed from the Landgraviate of Brabant and formed the heart of the historic Low Countries, part of the Burgundian Netherlands from 1430 and of the Habsburg Netherlands from 1482, until it was partitioned after the Dutch revolt. Present-day North Brabant (Staats-Brabant) was adjudicated to the Generality Lands of the Dutch Republic according to the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, while the reduced duchy remained part of the Southern Netherlands until it was conquered by French Revolutionary forces in 1794. Today all the duchy's former territories are in Belgium except for the Dutch province of North Brabant.

Philip IV (Felipe IV, Filipe III), (April 8, 1605 – September 17, 1665) was King of Spain between 1621 and 1665, sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands, and King of Portugal until 1640. On the eve of his death in 1665, the Spanish empire reached its historical zenith spanning almost 3 billion acres.

Philip IV was born in Valladolid, and was the eldest son of Philip III and his wife Margaret of Austria.

Philip IV's reign, after a few years of inconclusive successes, was characterized by political and military decay and adversity. He has been held responsible for the decline of Spain, which was mostly due, however, to organic causes largely beyond the control of any one ruler. Philip certainly possessed more energy, both mental and physical, than his diffident father. His handwritten translation of Francesco Guicciardini's texts on political history still exists, and he was a fine horseman and keen hunter.

His artistic taste is shown by his patronage of his court painter Diego Velázquez; his love of letters by his favoring Lope de Vega, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, and other immortal dramatists. He is credited, on fairly probable testimony, with a share in the composition of several comedies. He also commenced the building of the Buen Retiro palace in Madrid, parts of which still remain near the Prado.

His good intentions were no avail to governance, however. Feeling himself not yet qualified to rule when he ascended to the throne at age 16, he allowed himself to be guided by the most capable men he could find. His favourite, Olivares, was a far more honest and capable man than his predecessor the Duke of Lerma, and better fitted for the office of chief minister than any Spaniard of the time, perhaps. Philip, however, lacked the confidence to free himself from Olivares's influence once he did come of age. With Olivares's encouragement, he rather busied himself with frivolous amusements.

On December 1, 1640, an uprising took place in Lisbon expelling King Philip IV of Spain (Philip III of Portugal) from the Portuguese throne, giving it to the Braganzas. This was the end of 60 years of the Iberian Union and the beginning of the Portuguese Restoration War (lost by the Habsburgs).

By 1643, when disasters falling on all sides led to the dismissal of the all-powerful minister, Philip had largely lost the power to devote himself to hard work. After a brief struggle with the task of directing the administration of the most extensive and worst-organized multi-national state in Europe, he sank back into indolence and let other favourites govern.

His political opinions were those he had inherited from his father and grandfather. He thought it his duty to support the House of Habsburg and the cause of the Roman Catholic Church against the Protestants, to assert his sovereignty over the Dutch, and to extend the dominions of his family. The utter exhaustion of his people in the course of perpetual war, against the Netherlands, France, Portugal, Protestant forces in the Holy Roman Empire and Great Britain, was seen by him with sympathy but he considered it an unavoidable misfortune, since he could not have been expected to renounce his legitimate rights, or to desert what he viewed as the cause of God, the Church and the House of Habsburg.

He was idealised by his contemporaries as the model of Baroque kingship. Outwardly he maintained a bearing of rigid solemnity, and was seen to laugh only three times in the course of his entire public life. But, in private, his court was grossly corrupt. Victorian historians prudishly attributed the early death of his eldest son, Baltasar Carlos, to debauchery, encouraged by the gentlemen entrusted by the king with his education. Doctors that treated the Prince at that time diagnosed smallpox, although modern scholars attribute his death to appendicitis. The death of his son shocked the king. Philip IV died broken-hearted in 1665, expressing the pious hope that his surviving son, Carlos, would be more fortunate than himself. On his death, a catafalque was built in Rome to commemorate his life.

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