Dutch Silver Ducats move from the ‘Twelve Provinces’, to ‘Dutch Castles’ for the latest series

The Silver Ducat is a coin that has become quintessentially Dutch in the modern coin world and the Royal Dutch Mint has issued some particularly fine restrikes in recent years. They’ve also maintained a programme of new designs that have been inspired by the originals. That range was called ‘Twelve Provinces’ and issued a design linked to each of the distinct regions of the Netherlands. You can read all about the series in our Coin Series Profile, so let’s have a look at the next generation.

Called ‘Dutch Castles’, this new Ducat series sticks with the same format, including the rarely used 0.873 fineness silver, and has exactly the same obverse, excepting the date, of course. The reverse face is where we see it move away from the historical figure focus of Twelve Provinces. There’s still the traditional figure and shield present, in this case Godard van Reede, a Dutch general that fought for the English and was owner of the most epic mullet hairstyle of the seventeenth century…

The main focus, as you can tell from the series title, is a castle. The RDM has chosen the biggest castle in the Netherlands to kick it all off, but in its current form it can only trace its completed existence back to 1912. While the site is steeped in history, this particular building isn’t that old, and the mints claim that it was frequented by the ‘jet-set’ in the 20th century doesn’t really endear it as a worthy subject either. We’d expect this to be a good looking strike in hand however, despite the poor official images below. The previous series had some great designs in it and we’d expect nothing less this time out.

There will be four coins released in this series through 2020, coming in May, August and October. The first coin retails for €49.95 and comes boxed with a Certificate of Authenticity that carries information on the castle. The mintage of 2,000 is half that of the Twelve Provinces issues and it’s available to order now, We’ll try to get some better images in the meantime.

MINTS DESCRIPTION

The first to shine in the series “Dutch Castles” is De Haar Castle in Haarzuilens, Utrecht. To visit De Haar Castle, whether to admire its park, its rich history, the exhibitions, gardens, deer or for a wedding, is to be immersed in a different world. Behind every door, every detail, every flower in its colourful gardens is a story. A story about earlier times, different cultures and interesting characters.

De Haar is the largest castle in the Netherlands, once the private residence of the Van Zuylen family, whose descendants still stay here yearly. In the last century, the castle also frequently hosted members of the international jet-set with their lavish lifestyle; from Coco Chanel to Roger Moore, they too left their mark on the sumptuous rooms of the most opulent spot in Utrecht.

REVERSE: shows, as stated in the Dutch Mint Act, an armored knight with a shield before his left leg. On his shield you can see the province weapon and the inscription MO.NO.ARG.REG.BELGII. TRAJ. ‘MO NO ARG REG’ is the Latin abbreviation for ‘Moneta Nova Argenta Regni’: New Silver coin of the Kingdom. ‘BELGII’ is the Latin name for The Netherlands, and therefore does not (only) translate as the Kingdom of Belgium. ‘TRAJ’ is short for Traiectum, which is the province of Utrecht. The inscription means: New Silver coin of the Kingdom of the Netherlands province Utrecht. The knight depicted in this series is Godard van Reede (1644 –1703).

OBVERSE: we see the National coat of arms of the Netherlands with the Royal Crown between the numbers of the year and the inscription CONCORDIA RES PARVAE CRESCUNT, ‘Unity makes Strength’, the mint mark and the privy mark.