European coin?

[Barent]

Other than the date of 1752 I have no idea about the country of origin of this coin

[translateltd]

Bishopric of Liege, in the Low Countries.  There was a question about an almost identical piece on

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Coinquestion

a couple of weeks ago, with full details.

[bart]

This is indeed a liard from the prince-bishopry of Liege, in the name of John Theodore of Bavaria.
Legends sa: I(oannes) THEOD(orus) CAR(dinalem) D(ei) G(ratia) BAV(ariae) D(ux), EP(iscopus) ET PRIN(ceps) LEO(dinium) DUX B(ullionensis) M(arquis) F(ranchimontis) C(omes) L(ossensis et) H(ornensis) = John Theodore, cardinal, by the grace of God duke of Bavaria, bishop and prince of Liege, duke of Bouillon, marquis of Franchimont, count of Loon and Horn.

On the obverse you see the crowned shield of John Theodore, on the reverse 5 shields are depicted: central the crowned shield of Liege, depicting the "perron", a liberty statue, around are the shields of Bouillon, Franchimont, Loon and Horn.

The prince-bishopry of Liege was a state in nowadays Belgium, independent of the Austrian Netherlands. It was ruled (as also Cologne, Munster etc...) by members of the Wittelsbach family. As John Theodore fuzzed too much with his Habsburg neighbours (his money was on too low a standard), the German empire took off his right to make coins. So, after John Theodore, only coins were minted during the Sede Vacante periods.

bart

[Barent]

My great thanks to "translateltd" and "bart" for the answer.  Tried to ID the piece in the WC Centennial Edition (ID's coins back to late 1600's) under Belgium - Liege but it is not shown.  In any event it is always nice to finally ID a stranger in my collection of otherwise SEAsian coins only.