In the country's crown

"De Lanscroon'(=country's crown)  originates from a very old house that was situated at about the same site. It played an important role in the administrative life of the city, because before 1664, together with the neighbouring house "de luypaerd", it served as the old town hall, where the council met and where receptions were held on behalf of the city, as central store house of fire-fighting equipment, as a prison, and as a town wine cellar.
In 1593 it was decided to have a new town hall built, "because the lanscrone is about to collapse". It did not go that fast and it was probably not until 1660 that the Lanscroon was sold for the benefit of the new town hall in the market square and was later still mentioned as a private house carrying that name.
In the last century the shop A la Foire de Leipzig was located here, later followed by De Zon and finally V&D department store.

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The stone shows two crossed lances with a prince's crown above them, which made them crowned lances. In spite of the existing inscription IN THE COUNTRY'S CROWN, most of the gable stone literature stubbornly speaks of "the country's crown". The sculptor is said to have had either no idea of spelling or to have misunderstood and misrepresented the name of the house. 

Accordingly, the house name had nothing to do with real lances. The prince's crown should therefore be seen as the personification of sovereignty. The two lances running through the crown refer to the joint sovereignty of Maastricht, the city of the Duke of Brabant and the Bishop of Liege. In fact, they should be two sceptres.

Nice story but no proof. Old documents always speak of "lanscrone" and  therefore it must  be assumed that the two houses on the site were ordinary houses with ordinary names, which were bought by the city in the 14th century and defined as town houses. Note: the stone dates from around 1700 when "de lanscroon" was no longer town hall and any reference to whatever sovereignty must have been of no importance to the new owner.

The gablestone of the neighbouring house "de leopard" - a crowned leopard - has unfortunately disappeared; in 1912 that of "de lanscroon" was in the cellar under the Dinghuis, which is usually erroneously called the old town hall.
After the major renovation of V&D in 1964, the gablestone was relocated in a pillar of the shop, Grote Staat 5/15, and now once again, this time at eye level. On this first occasion, because of the 300th anniversary of the 'new' town hall, a chronogram was placed under the stone: LapIs DoMVs CIVItatIs, that is, stone from the town hall. The time verse, executed in loose copper letters, was granted only a shoirt life due to mischief and disappeared letter after letter.