Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, Rijder 1763, Dordrecht

Holland was the most important of the seven provinces of the northern Netherlands. Its economic focus was the city of Amsterdam – also known as the Venice of the North, because it was built on piles and traversed by canals. In 1622, it already numbered 100,000 inhabitants. Amsterdam made thriving progress, principally in the 17th century, through world trade, and grew to be the pre-eminent trade metropolis of Europe. The Dutch East India and West India trading companies both had their headquarters here. The rijder, which owes its name to its obverse design, was added to the circulating ducat in 1606 as a second, larger gold denomination. In its standard it was modeled on the unite, which had been introduced a few years before by the English king James I (1603-1625). Between 1640 and 1650, the production of rijders was halted, but 100 years later the provinces took up its issue again, as shown by our example of 1763. That was for withdrawing the worn and clipped Netherlands ducats, which were flowing back into the country, from circulation. Unlike the ducats, which were traded on daily gold prices, the rijider had a fixed price, which between 1748 and 1765 was established at 14 guilders.