Netherlands Gold Ducats
1917 Netherlands

Owner Comments:

Unfortunately I cannot find a good-looking example from 1916, which would have connected my Netherlands ducats collection to my Coins of 1916 collection. This is still struck in the midst of the Great War. There are 3 graded in MS62 including this one, and 5 graded higher.

The Netherlands was a neutral country, but experienced discomfort and hard circumstances. Bread and other food was rationed and soup kitchens sprang up. A bread ration was established in January 1917. On 28 June 1917, there was a shortage of potatoes. It became known in the neighborhoods of Amsterdam that there was a ship with potatoes in the Prinsengracht, but these were for the army. In order to feed their families, the working women of the Eastern Islands and the Czar Peter Neighborhood plundered the ship.

In the first week of July of that year, the unrest grew and the workers themselves also saw action. Warehouses and shops were looted. The police were powerless and the army acted. The revolt culminated in a battle on 5 July 1917, in which soldiers opened fire on a crowd that had gathered at the Haarlemmerplein. The revolt was beaten. There were nine dead and 114 people wounded.