BOOK REVIEW: GOLD DUCATS OF THE NETHERLANDS, VOL. 1

Book Review by Michael E. Marotta

Gold Ducats of the Netherlands, Vol. 1 by Dariusz F. Jasek, Knight Press, 2015. 345 pages, A4 (11.7 x 8.3 inches) €135 from www.goldducats.com.

I saw Gold Ducats of the Netherlands by Dariusz F. Jasek mentioned on the CoinTalk.com discussion board. From the sample material provided in the links, the book looked like a quality presentation. So, I bought the book in order to review it. I do not collect the series.

In the first place, when opened, the book lays flat. The binding is truly perfect –bound to the highest standards. The illustrations include high quality photographs of every coin (where possible), as well as specially commissioned line art to complement the narrative.

Perhaps the most telling hallmark is the fact that this is the book that the author wrote for himself. Fascinated by the long series of gold ducats of the Netherlands, Dariusz Jasek compiled a database of known images and descriptions. He arranged for permission for 3,000 images and supporting text from CoinArchives.com, and he obtained license to another 3,000 from the official database of the recently uncovered Koice Gold Treasure housed in Krakóv, Poland. To those he added 17,000 from auction houses and other sources. This book rests on a monumental database of over 23,000 known examples. The author brings passion and precision to this remarkable series of coins.

This is far more than a catalog. The actual listing of coins, by mint, denomination, and year, takes up the last 240 pages. The first quarter of the book, 90 pages, is about the history, purchasing power, and minting technology of the coins.

I spent a weekend reading the text, and catching typographical errors. They are inevitable. In software, we say that every non-trivial program has at least one bug. So, museum’s for museums was not the end of the world.

Like every cultural artifact, money exists in a social context. The author places this important series of gold coins in its historical milieu, tied closely – intimately – with the Dutch East India Company: Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, commonly initialized as VOC. This was the first joint-stock corporation, and (perhaps arguably) the first multinational corporation. Even after it was closed by law in 1799, the coins that were so closely associated with it continued – as well they should, as they began a century before the VOC was chartered. The VOC was beset by many problems, internal perhaps more than external. It was a wry comment that VOC was parodied as “perished by corruption”: Vergaan Onder Corruptie.

Whatever corruption touched the Dutch East India Company, since 1586, the ducats were kept consistent in weight and fineness - 3.515 grams and 0.986 fine. Both were lowered slightly in 1817 (3.454 grams and 0.983 fine), but those metrics have not changed in 200 years.

The Netherlands gold ducat was an imitation – a sibling, not a usurper – of the ducats of Venice and Florence. The closest cousin was the gold ducat of Hungary. The coin was struck for official and commemorative agendas from the 16th through the 21st centuries. Those and others are all illustrated and catalogued in this book. At root, while acknowledging the broad latitudes of issuance, this book is about the historically relevant coins of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, including piedforts and klippes. In addition to this book, the author includes a 50-page booklet (5-1/2 x 8-1/2), Estimated Values and Die Marriages. The values are recent updates to the figures published in the catalog. Those are all supported by citations to recent auctions.

This is the first volume of a multi-volume set. The next book is in production now.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
NEW BOOK: GOLD DUCATS OF THE NETHERLANDS (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n41a04.html)

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