Netherlands adopts US Dollar and comes with a Dollar coin ..................

I collect particular European (among which certain Dutch coins) coins and, when digging around on the site of the Royal Dutch Mint came across something that might be of interest to American collectors as well. Hope you like this post.

First some background info. As you may or may not know, The Netherlands Antilles were part of the Kingdom of The Netherlands. The latter comprises Aruba, The Netherlands and The Netherlands Antilles. All independent countries within 1 kingdom. The islands are like 98% per cent independent (as in "Holland only pays money into them, does their foreign policy, is responsible for their defense (othewise they would have had the honour of becoming Venezuelan citizens long ago)).

The Netherlands Antilles, however, managed to accumulate a staggering national deficit and turned bankrupt. The state of their country must have depressed them so deeply that they became the first ever(?) country to simply abolish themselves: Holland agreed to take over their national deficit and to allow for the dismantling of the Netherlands Antilles in return for more power over justice and finance.

The country had a referendum and ...... it's gone now. Gone with the wind.

The Netherlands Antilles were dismantled and reshaped into two new autonomous countries (with less self government than Aruba), being St. Martin and Curacao. The remaining three island didn't even wish to become automous somehow and voted to become ... Dutch.

The islands Saba, St. Eustatius and Bonaire are now officially Dutch territory (part of Holland). So a day trip from Curacao to Bonaire means you were actually in Holland. Don't expect any tulips there though.

The three islands will be treated a bit differently though. For instance, they have adopted the US Dollar as their currency. This means that Holland is the only(?) country with two different official currencies: The Euro on the mainland, The US Dollar on their Carribean islands.

Weeeeeird.... But it makes sense. Most of their income comes from American tourism. Better have a low Dollar than a strong Euro then. :thumb:

During this month (January) the NAF (Netherlands Antilles Guilder) has been replaced by the US Dollar on these three islands and....

Now comes the part that might interest collectors. The Royal Dutch Mint will issue a coin for the three islands featuring their most typical birds and their hree mountans (The Quill, Mount Scenery and Brandaris). Yes, before Holland's highest "mountain" could boast of barely 300 meters, now they have 3 vulcanos.

The coin celebrates the introduction of the US Dollar to these islands this month. So this Dollar is basically a US Dollar. Of course it can't say so as it's not a US issue and no legal tender, neither in the US nor in Holland. However, according to the website below it will be accepted by the banks and shops on three islands (I guess the three concerned). So what is this then? An inofficial US dollar that is no legal tender and therefore bears neither country's name but can be used as a circulation coin to buy goods and services all over Holland as long as you're not in Europe?

For a clear picture of the coin: http://www.knm.nl/Invoering-dollar-.../nl/news/97/?NieuwsGroepID=1&NWSY=2011&NWSM=1

Some additional info (in Dutch) can be found here where it is said that the coin is gold coloured, has the same diameter as a US Dollar, has a mintage of 50.000 and can be purchased on the islands by the inhabitants for 1 US dollar per coin.

http://bonaire.web-log.nl/bonaire/2011/01/herdenkingsdollar-op-bonaire-statia-en-saba-.html

I think this coin or medal or whatever is so awkward it's cool.

And it might interest American collectors.

Never thought I will have to add a Dollar to my collection of Dutchies.

 

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Makes sense indeed - after all, those islands have practically had the US dollar for a long time: Both the Aruban florin and the Netherlands Antilles gulden were pegged to the USD at a fixed rate. For the three small islands it may be too costly to issue their own money, so instead of having their local versions of the US dollar, they simply adopt the real thing.

That commemorative piece is a little odd indeed. Right, not legal tender anywhere. Also, I wonder what this (from the KNM website) actually means: "De uitgifte is afgestemd met US-Mint in de Verenigde Staten." So the US Mint agreed to this issue?

Christian

 

Interesting and different.

 

so once again curacao is an autonomus coin issuing state like in the 40's? and will st martin be issuing their own coins?

 

The Netherlands Antilles as a political entity was dissolved a few months ago (on 10-10-10 ... easy to keep in mind ), and the "BES Islands" will use the US dollar. Now Curaçao and Sint-Maarten will have a common central bank, issuing an Antillean Guilder which will basically a dollar too, but look more local. Side note: Aruba continues to use the florin (pegged to the US dollar). The French part of Saint Martin uses the euro.

Christian

 

thanks christian, by the way there is a thread on world and ancient which will interest you.

 

Here is some info about the new ISO codes by the way:
http://www.currency-iso.org/dl_currency_iso_amendment_150.pdf

Note the last paragraph, about the schedule for Curaçao and Sint-Maarten. No new money from there until 2012, it seems.

Christian

 

Curacao and St. Martin will share 1 central bank and, basically, keep the NAF (Netherlands Antilles Guilder). But, as far as I know, as of somewhere in 2012, it will be renamed Carribean Guilder.

So, both islands will share the same currency.

 

Very interesting. Thanks for the news.

Is there a redemption period for the old coins and currency and is it over yet?

 

In the "BES Islands" payments can be either in US dollars or in Netherlands Antilles guilders until the end of January. After that, you can get the old (ANG) cash exchanged into USD cash; don't know for how long. The whole conversion is not a terribly big deal, partly because the total population of the three is roughly 25,000, partly because the ANG has been pegged to the US dollar (with a fixed rate of $1 = 1.79 guilders) for 40 years.

Christian

 

Cool story and an interesting coin. The design is quite strange, but for some reason I like it.

 

That is an amazing story! I have to agree the coin is so strange I need one.
Thanks for posting it!

 

I wonder if anybody and if the same will happen with good 'ol Barrack?

 

Euro: Welcome to CT! Interesting story. Can you order this coin online? Thanks, TC

 

According to the website of the Royal Dutch Mint it will be available in their webshop, but they do NOT ship outside the European Union:

http://www.knm.nl/Veelgestelde-vragen/nl/page/186/?FGID=6

So ordering from the US will not be possible.

However, their news article on this coin states that there is some kind of cooperation with the US Mint. I have no idea what that means but apparently this coin hasn't gone unnoticed by the US Mint. So, perhaps they will be offering these coins as well???

 

I doubt it, but probably dealers such as Joel Anderson (joelscoins.com) will soon have it.

Christian

 

Your story on the special dollar was very interesting and I would like to get one. I think they look really neat!

 

A design reminiscent of the "Bar Copper".....

 

What makes it a big deal to me is that usually very high percentages of the old coins will be redeemed and those old coins are destroyed. In many cases people just havn't saved any moderns because they contain no silver. This means virtually all of a specific coin can be utterly destroyed.

In this particular case this isn't going to happen because this is a popular tourist destination and these coins have been carried home bu tourists all over the world. But it's probable that high percentages of the large denomination coins will still be redeemed. Even some mint sets still on the islands might be cut up and redeemed.

This is also important to some collectors because they have significant amounts of poundage and other coins from the Dutch Antilles they might want to ship to get redeemed. I had enough French coins to bother to ship them back.

It's always interesting to see how all this stuff develops. It's easier to predict the future if you keep up with the present.

 

If a tourist or collector has, for whichever reason, lots of Netherlands Antilles Guilders left over and wants them to get redeemed, there is no need to hurry. Keep in mind that the ANG will continue to exist for a while: Only the three "BES Islands" stopped using that currency - Curaçao and Sint-Maarten will not replace it until some time in 2012.

Christian