LEEUWENDAALDER: COIN OF GELDERLAND
Leeuwendaalder, 1646: Province of Gelderland (Netherlands)
Dutch Republic (also: The Republic of the Seven United Netherlands or The United Provinces of the Netherlands) — federal republic, existed in 1588-1795; a predecessor state of the modern Netherlands. Was a confederation of seven provinces: Duchy of Guelders, County of Holland, County of Zeeland, Lordship of Utrecht, Lordship of Overijssel, Lordship of Frisia, Lordship of Groningen.
Duchy of Guelders as part of Dutch Republic.
MO - ARG - PRO - CO - FOE - BELG - GEL (Moneta Argentea Provinciarum Confoedearatum Belgicarum; Gelriae): Silver Coins /money/ of the Province of the Netherlands Confederation; Gelderland /Guelders/.
Habsburg Netherlands (in Latin referred to as Belgica), is the collective name of Renaissance period fiefs in the Low Countries held by the Holy Roman Empire's House of Habsburg. In 1581 the Seven United Provinces seceded from the rest of this territory to form the Dutch Republic.
A knight in armor holds a shield with a heraldic lion.
CONFIDENS - DNO - NON - MOVETVR - 1646 (Confidens Domino non Movetur): Those who trust in God are immovable /Those who trust in the Lord are as unshakable/.
A lion standing on its hind legs as one of the symbols of the Netherlands. It was this image that gave the coin the name leeuwendaalder.
- Silver: 41 mm - 26.82 g
- Reference price: 100$
COIN LEEUWENDAALDER — WHERE & WHEN (coins catalog: by names & emitents)
- NETHERLANDS (16th-18th centuries) — SPANISH NETHERLANDS + DUTCH REPUBLIC: leeuwendaalder = 32 stuiver (38 stuiver after 1606, 42 stuiver after 1659) = 5/2 gulden (at different times there were different ratios)
- GERMANY (German States: Jever, Rietberg...; 17th century): leeuwendaalder (these coins were actually local thalers, but their design was identical to that of the Dutch leeuwendaalder)
About the name of the coin leeuwendaalder: leeuwendaalder is a large Dutch silver coin (was minted in 16th-18th centuries) with an image of the heraldic lion. Hence the name of the coin: "leeuw" means "lion" in the Dutch language. In its essence, it is a kind of daalder.
The weight was almost 28 grams a 0.750 silver. It is interesting that the coin had a nominal price of 32 stuivers, three stuivers above the value of the silver in it. The difference flowing into the treasury was a tax for the benefit of warfare (The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt).
The leeuwendaalder was immediately minted in large quantities. Most Dutch provinces and cities started minting their own leeuwendaalders. They were very similar in design; the difference can be clearly seen in the character of the image of the knight.
In the seventeenth century it was mainly used in overseas trade, especially in the Levant, and also in Eastern Europe. The coin have been called "father of the dog" by Arab merchants, because the proud Dutch lion was disparagingly called a dog by the Muslims. In some regions slaves from pirates, new weapons and ship rigging were bought for leeuwendaalders. As a result, leeuwendaalders came into circulation as legal tender almost all over the world.
By the way, the names of the Bulgarian lev, Moldavian and Romanian leu are derived from the leeuwendaalder.
