1628 Medal Betts-26

Coin Details

Description

This 1628 medal, Betts-26, dates from the year preceding the famous capture of the Spanish Silver Fleet, documenting Dutch colonial and military preparations. By 1628, the Dutch West India Company was conducting aggressive campaigns of raiding and colonization throughout the Caribbean and the Americas. Dutch privateers regularly attacked Spanish and Portuguese shipping while the Company established permanent settlements in present-day New York, Guyana, and Brazil. This medal provides context for the escalating Dutch-Spanish conflict that would culminate in the spectacular victory at Matanzas Bay the following year. The iconographic vocabulary of colonial medals drew heavily on classical mythology and allegory, with figures representing continents, rivers, virtues, and vices arranged in compositions that conveyed complex political messages. It documents the buildup of Dutch naval power in American waters that made the Silver Fleet capture possible.

Rarity Notes

Very rare. Pre-Matanzas Dutch colonial medals from the late 1620s are exceptionally scarce.

Cross References

Betts-26