103683 | BELGIUM. Liège. St. Lambert's bronze Méreau.

103683  |  BELGIUM. Luik (Liège). Chapter of St. Lambert's Cathedral bronze Méreau or Communion Token. Undated, issued circa 1705. Distributed at funeral services and birthdays (21mm, 4.90 g, 6h).

 

ANNIVERSARIUM, skull and crossbones // ECCLESI LEODI, crossbones between two flames.

 

Dengis Me.01-06; De Renesse pl. LXXII, 6; Revue Belge 1875, pl. V, 15; Chorney pp. 183-185. PCGS MS-62 Brown. Red-brown surfaces, with some lightly scattered spots and charming brilliance remaining around the devices. The final type in a series that continues to grow in popularity and desirability. A lofty mint state specimen, with just three observed finer in the PCGS census.

 

St. Lambert served as the Bishop of Maastricht and later, Liège, where he is celebrated as a martyr and patron saint, having defended the fidelity of marriage while never succumbing to Merovingian politics. Though buried at Maastricht, his successor, St. Hubertus, had his relics removed and enshrined at Liège.

 

This type has oftentimes—even here—been presented as emanating from the middle-late 17th century. However, its style and refinement of engraving place it later than the other four "skull types" in this series, yielding an attribution to the earlier portion of the 18th century instead. Indeed, its appearance in de Schodt's work on the numismatic issues of St. Lambert's Chapter in the 1875 volume of Revue belge de numismatique confirms this later dating for the type.

 

This item was featured in our e-Sylum ad.

 

Upload: 19 October 2026.