The Netherlands Antilles have ceased to exist and they have a coin to tell one so. The Netherlands Antilles accumulated a large national deficit and looked towards a bleak future. But a solution was found. It quit! They started negotiations with Holland (the latter agreed to take over their entire national deficit in return for more control of justice and finance and allowed for the dismantling of The Netherlands Antilles witin the Kingdom of The Netherlands) and had a national referendum on the issue. The result: Curacao and St. Martin voted for independence, again as part of The Kingdom of The Netherlands (but will have less self government than Aruba for the first 5 years), whereas the smaller Islands voted for ending independence all tohether and returning to The Netherlands. On 10 10 2010 in an entirely peaceful way that has gone unnoticed by most of the planet The Netherlands Antilles simply ceased to exist. Instead there now are 2 countries, St. Martin and Curacao. Saba, St. Eustatius and Bonaire are now part of Holland. The Netherlands Antilles Guilder will be replaced/renamed somewhere in 2012, as far as I know. What I find interesting is that The Netherlands Antilles have issued an official commemorative 10 Guilder silver piece for this (guess it was ordered from the Dutch Mint mint by the ones turning the lights off ) with the name of the non existing country on it, The Netherlands Antilles, and the (Dutch) text "10 10 10. Goodbye to The Netherlands Antilles"....................... Strange. Normally one sees coins of new entities, new countries, the Phoenix arising from the ashes commemorating a fresh start e.g. the moment they got independent, the year the revolution started etc. etc. But on this coin the old entity, the Phoenix burning up, is kinda celebrating it managed to get rid of itself. Never seen such a commemorative. Does anyone know of other such coins where a country, simply out of its own volition, abolishes itself and issues a commemorative for the "happy" occasion?
When that coin was issued, the Netherlands Antilles did still exist. By the way, for those who do not know the coin, this is what it looks like: The design is based on a monument in Curaçao: http://www.comitekoninkrijksrelaties.org/?page_id=68 Would not say that the end of the Neth. Antilles was not noticed by the rest of the world. At least among coin collectors in Europe it got some attention. And of course in what you call Holland, ie. the (European) Netherlands. Also because the process took several years and lots of negotiating. There may have been similar issues that commemorate an imminent separation, but yes, it's definitely not common. I know about coins from Sweden that commemorate the separation of Norway and Finland, but those were issued as jubilee pieces 100 (200) years later ... Christian
