Paper money of the siege of Leiden (28 stuivers)

Leiden was besieged twice between 1573 and the following year, and in the second siege even the silver to be melted down from silverware ran out. The town stripped the covers from church books, pressed the paper into many layers, and struck coin dies into it — money struck on paper. This piece is an actual 28-stuiver, on whose face can be read a lion, the shield of Leiden with its crossed keys, and the legend PVGNO PRO PATRIA, I fight for the fatherland. Among the coins of the same siege the legend 'this is for freedom' is also known. Paper money itself had come far earlier in China, but this paper, struck out by a besieged town with no metal behind it, is held to be among the earliest paper money in Europe, and the weight of its meaning stood far above its face value.