Silver Dutch Daalder
(1574 CE)

This silver daalder was struck by the Dutch in Leiden when it was under siege from the Spanish in 1574. On its face is the city’s shield encircled by the legend “God Preserve Leyden”. The production of coins by cities under siege was common in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Some of these coins issued by the provinces and cities of the Netherlands circulated in the American colonies during the time of the New Netherland Colony (1609-1664). New Netherland was a company owned and operated business, run on a for profit basis by the directors of the West India Company. The intent of the firm was to make a profit for the investors who had purchased shares in the company. The business center of New Netherland was along the Hudson River from New Amsterdam (New York City) northwest to Fort Orange (Albany) and its operations spread west of Greenwich Bay (similar to the present day border NY-CT border), through all of New Jersey and parts of Delaware.

Unlike New England, the merchants largely responsible for exploiting New Netherland's resources were from the home country. Secure in their Amsterdam countinghouses, they tightly controlled the colony's lifeline to Holland and deposited their profits to their accounts in Amsterdam, thereby depriving New Netherland of capital and the opportunity to develop a viable, colony-based merchant community. The American word “dollar” is derived from “daalder”.