Renaissance Gold Coins!
Dutch Trade Ducats from 1589-1644

During the Renaissance, Holland was the commercial capitol of Europe. These old Dutch coins were intended to facilitate Dutch trade with the rest of the world at a time when the Dutch East India Company was the dominant force in the famous “Spice Routes” to the Far East. Our coins are dated between 1589 and 1644. All feature nicely centered and well-defined devices, with excellent overall eye appeal. The traditional image of a Royal Knight holding a sword is featured on the obverse. Larger coins sometimes had the knight on horse back; smaller coins like these simply feature the knight and sword. The legend on the reverse is full of Latin abbreviations, which are difficult to decipher, but we’re trying! The gold content of .1106 AGW was for centuries the traditional weight for these Ducats.

Please remember, technology was extremely crude at the time of their issue, so these coins look like they are from the 1500s and 1600s. After all, the printing press for books was invented by Gutenburg barely a century before these coins were made. Most interesting is their “wavy” surface, the result of actually being manually “rolled.” Hold these original Renaissance gold Ducats in your hands, feel their wavy surfaces, and you are instantly transported centuries into the past, to a time when ships and swords ruled the world, and Shakespeare’s plays were contemporary entertainment! We haven’t seen a group of ducats like these in many, many years.

Mintage figures from the 1500s and 1600s simply don’t exist today. The rule of thumb was that gold coins were made as needed, and the world was a very different place when the original Queen Elizabeth was on the English throne and Sir Walter Raleigh was exploring America. Trade Ducats were carried in the great wooden ships across dangerous seas to the Orient and Americas in return for silks, spices, jewels, and furs. It is safe to assume that very few of these classic gold Ducats were minted at all. Only a minute fraction have survived the peril of the centuries, and an even smaller fraction have survived in Almost Uncirculated condition like these unusual coins. That is why we are amazed to have these 40 pieces to offer.