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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;goldducat, post: 2380859, member: 37873&quot;]As I promised to <i>Mickey in PDX</i>, here is a new post with a rich history background. It is about the first gold ducats minted in The Netherlands.</p><p><br /></p><p>The first gold ducats minted in The Netherlands were not those of the Dutch type, minted from 1586 with a knight holding a bunch of arrows on the obverse side and an inscription in a square on the reverse. Gold ducats were minted already in 1583, but only a few copies of this type is known.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://goldducats.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/HOL1583-500.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p> <p style="text-align: center">The Holland 1583 ducat (source: <a href="http://www.kuenker.de" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.kuenker.de" rel="nofollow">www.kuenker.de</a>)</p><p><br /></p><p>This extremely rare coin, the Holland 1583 ducat, was minted as a result of the resolution dated May 20, 1583. In this resolution a new coin types were announced. One of them was the first gold ducat of the Hungarian type, minted in the Dordrecht mint (the official mint of the Holland province). We may read on these coins: <i>Vigilate Deo Confidentes</i> (means: Be vigilant in confidence in God) on the obverse and <i>MOneta NOva AVRea COMITate HOLlandiæ and ZEELandiæ</i> (means: The New Gold Coin of the County of Holland and Zeeland) on the reverse side. This type was minted in one year only. Later on, the single ducats of the Hungarian type were minted in the Republic by several mints.</p><p><br /></p><p>The importance of the Holland 1583 ducat is huge. This coin started an era of the standard of a good, widely accepted and well-recognized worldwide gold coin in the Dutch trade. Because payments in the international trade required a large amounts of money, gold coins - lighter and thus easier in storage, than large silver coins of a similar value - were needed. But gold coins minted in The Netherlands before 1583 were issued in various weights and/or fineness, depending on the issuing authority. A large number of those were also debased coins. The gold standard coin was needed.</p><p><br /></p><p>Efforts of the Holland province to mint the high quality coins and their fight against mints minting debased coins started already before establishing the Republic of the United Netherlands. According to two agreements, the Pacification of Ghent, signed in 1576 and Union of Utrecht signed in 1579, all provinces agreed to work together, also when it comes to minting. From now all the major decisions supposed to be make by a group representatives of all provinces (so-called the States General). It was signed by representatives of the Gelderland, Holland (and West Friesland, as its sub-region), Zeeland, Utrecht and Friesland provinces.</p><p><br /></p><p>On July 26, 1581, the States General signed in the Hague the Act of Abjuration (aka declaration of the independence of the Low Countries) and argued that the actions of King Phillip II of Spain delegitimized his rule over the Low Countries. As one of the results of this act, from now on showing the portrait, weapon, motto or even using the name of Philip II on coins was forbidden. In 1580s the States General unsuccessfully tried to limit the number of active mints in The Netherlands to keep control over the quality of coins minted. They failed miserably, because these assumptions have been met only in 1694, when a number of the city mints was closed in the Republic.</p><p><br /></p><p>The province of Holland was always the one who demanded a good and stable money for trade the most of all Dutch provinces. It was because Amsterdam, the largest city of this province was at this time the trade and business center of Europe. The Dutch ships loaded with gold ducats were traveling to the Baltic countries and to Asia, and used them for payments in exchange for the products demanded by merchants in The Netherlands.</p><p><br /></p><p>Going back to the the coin from the photo, certainly the selling price will also help us to appreciate its importance. For the recently sold coin in the Künker auction 171 in June 2010 the buyer had to pay $7,739. Expensive? Not so much. He was rather very lucky, because the same specimen was sold previously in 2008 by the AA-Muntveiling, a Dutch auction house, for $10,898 <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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