(sold for $2.0)

1654, Spain, Barcelona, Philip IV. Copper Ardite Coin. Struck Off-Center!

Mint Year: 1654 Reference: KM-21. Denomination: Ardite Mint Place: Barcelona Condition: Lightly deformed, greenish deposits and light corrosion scars, struck 20% off-center, otherwise F-VF! Material: Copper Diameter: 18mm Weight: 1.48gm

Obverse: Armored bust of Philip IV of Spain left, flanked by letters (A-R).   Reverse: Coat-of-arms of Barcelona within inner circle. Legend: + BARCINO . CIVI . 1654 .  

Philip IV (Felipe IV,     (8 April 1605 – 17 September 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.

In December 1st, 1640, a 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. This shocked the king, but its     effect soon wore off. 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.