Dutch, Customs Seal, KL & Lion
KL & Lion Dutch Custom Seal, Image and Found by Folkert.
Found in Germany.
Crowned lion armed and langued, holding in his dexter paw a sword and in the sinister paw seven arrows tight together // KL
From the finder, "Not very old (perhaps early-mid 19th century), but nevertheless interesting: a customs seal from the Netherlands."
The arms, consisting of a crowned lion armed and langued, holding in his dexter paw a sword and in the sinister paw seven arrows tight together, were first used in The Dutch Republic of the Seven United Provinces from 1584 until 1796 when revolution replaced it. It was returned in its current form in 1815 by the first king of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, William I, who added the azure, billetty or with a lion rampant or of Nassau (blue shield, gold lion & billets) from his family arms. However the colour change of the background from red to blue cannot be seen on a lead impression although it is implied by the addition of horizontal lines and the only other visual difference is the billets from the house of Nassau (small rectangles on the background which are only faintly evident on some other customs seals). This seal is unlikely to come from the Dutch Republic that ended in 1796, which means the seals cannot be older than 1815 but this lion appears to be wearing a crown rather than an open coronet. The crown was changed for a coronet in 1907, therefore this seal is likely to be from between 1815 and 1907.
See Metal detecting and identification in the Netherlands and Belgium, "On bagseals.org i came opon this lead seal, found by Folkert, with the text 'KL'. On the backside the generalitylion. In the period 1814-1818 the service 'Convooien en Licenten' was spelled out as 'Konvooijen en Licenten'. That can explain the use of 'KL'. ... The generalitylion was used in february 1814 in a period of 22 months by Frederik (Willem I), King of the Netherlands. This seal can only be used for a short period between 1814-1816."
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