Royal Dutch Mint
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Koninklijke Nederlandse Munt (Royal Dutch Mint), seated in Utrecht, the Netherlands, is a company owned for 100% by the Dutch State, and since 1807 the only body allowed to strike and give out coins.
[edit] History
On September 17, 1806 - The Netherlands were under the rule of King Louis Napoleon - Louis Napoleon decided that the striking and giving out of coins should be taken care of nationally by a single body[1]. This in contrary to the costoms in the Middle Ages, when every big trading city had its own mint and thus its own coins. This resulted in several coins circulating within the country, and a lot of bureaucracy.
Originally it was the intention to have the National Mint be founded in the capital Amsterdam, but as there were not sufficient financial means available, it was decided to have the Mint seat in Utrecht. The Mint of the city Utrecht was best suited to be "promoted" to National Mint.
After Napoleon was defeated in 1814, and the Kingdom of the Netherlands was founded, with William I as a King, the Mint was renamed to 's Rijks Munt. However, also Belgium was part of this new kingdom, and a second Mint was located in Brussels[2]. However, since Belgium soon declared itself independent in 1830 (recognized in 1839), 's Rijks Munt was the only mint again in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. However, the provincial coins which were made before the unification of the Mint were still in circulation, and legal coins. Due to the relative high intrinsic value, the "new" coins were only becoming more popular later on. Only in 1849 the provincial coins were officially taken out of the circulation.
Only in 1901[3] the company was placed under supervision of the Ministry of Finance, and in 1912 the Mint officially became a company owned by the State[4]. At the end of the Second World War, in 1944, coins were striked in the United States, because the Netherlands were occupied by the Germans. This was necessary to make sure there would be sufficient money available after the war would have ended[5].
In 1994 's Rijks Munt was renamed to De Nederlandse Munt NV (The Dutch Mint Inc.). It became a company, of which 100% of the shares are owned by the Dutch State. The Queen gave the company the predicate Koninklijk (Royal) five years later, and the company was now allowed to call itself De Koninklijke Nederlandse Munt (The Royal Dutch Mint)[6].
[edit] Production
The Dutch Royal Mint is since 2002 allowed to also strike coins for several National Banks in the euro zone, but also strikes coins for Latvia, Guatemala and Honduras. Besides that, the Dutch Royal Mint makes a lot of memorial- and collection coins (sometimes an official coin, sometimes not) and royal medals[7].
The Royal Dutch Mint also got the task of destroying the old guilders, since they were to be replaced by euros.
[edit] Sources and references
- ^ By Royal decrete no. 18
- ^ website on the Dutch guilder about the coins in the era of William I
- ^ Law of 28 May 1901, State Courant No 130
- ^ Website on the Dutch guilder, during the reign of Wilhelmina (Dutch)
- ^ Royal Decrete 20 July 1944, State Courant E54 and E55)
- ^ Website about the Dutch Guilder describing the change from 's Rijks Munt to Koninklijke Nederlandse Munt
- ^ Website of the Royal Dutch Mint on market shares (Dutch)
