THE RIJKSMUSEUM NUMISMATIC COLLECTION

The Rijks Museum readily admits that in the past, it hasn’t featured this important collection to its full potential but, this is about to change dramatically. We discussed the plans to include as many items, both coins and medals throughout the museum, as a comprehensive way of associating the relevance of these exquisite pieces and to tell a greater story of the history and development of the Netherlands into the country who, are also celebrating 200 years as an independent kingdom this year.

If you are planning a visit to Amsterdam in the near future, I highly recommend adding the Rijks Museum to your itinerary and familiarize yourself with one of the world’s most outstanding collections of art and culture – you will not be disappointed by any means – and keep an eye out for those numismatic treasures placed alongside of the great masters & displays of artifacts – a most useful way of emphasizing the importance of our money and medallic history throughout the ages!

MA: Recently, the Rijksmuseum underwent a substantial and costly renovation which took more than ten years. What have been the greatest changes or additions which your department saw with the renovations?

GvdH: For the coins department specifically, much of the collection was hidden away for a very long time and only very small amounts of it were ever on view to the public. Most of the pieces were in storage so now, one of the goals I’ve set is to make many of those pieces “more public” as it once was. One particular way to do this is to increase their display by making them part of the chronological circuit that makes use of the presentation of the art & history – all collections are “mixed” together to tell different stories rather than just keeping everything separate. In this way you can encounter coins and medals everywhere, so they form part of the bigger story of the development of Dutch society, culture and nation.

We have made room to display a small part of the collection in the same place where, when the museum first opened, the entire coin & medal collection was displayed. They were mounted on boards and in cabinets and placed around the beautiful balcony of the library which has retained the original style of the museum’s architecture. One particular part of the collection we obtained in 1885 was that of a private Dutch collector Pieter van Gelder who was very interested in the history of the Netherlands through medals rather than coins.

MA: At present, and not counting the many other artifacts here at the Rijksmuseum, can you tell me how many coins and medals are currently included in the collection and how far back some of the collection is dated?

GvdH: The basis of our collection is primarily made up from two prominent collectors whose collections were obtained by the Museum around 1885. Specifically included are those of the van Gelder family, both father and son who collected Dutch historical medals of different kinds and times, and of Mr. Maschhaupt, who mainly collected medals from Dutch guilds and from Dutch city governments. The first one is considered a typical nationalistic 19th century collection. The two collections together consist of 10,000 medals which nearly all of them are Dutch.

We also have about two thousand coins – a significant part of the coin collection, 500 pieces consist of emergency coins. Made during the first years of the Dutch revolt against Spanish rule in the 1570´s, and in 1672 when Holland was attacked by France, England and two German states (Munster and Cologne). In the besieged towns, emergency coins were made, from church silver for example, and for the history of the Netherlands, it’s a very important numismatic chapter.

To read the complete article, see: Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum Numismatic Collection (news.coinupdate.com/amersterdams-rijksmuseum-numismatic-collection-3390/)

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