Netherlands Indies gulden (silver)

A gulden silver coin of the Dutch East Indies, cut with the portrait of William I. After the VOC was broken up (1799) its territories became a colony of the state, and another ledger bearing the name of the gulden was opened on the far side of the equator. The coin was struck in the home country and crossed the sea, and in 1828 the Java Bank, a bank of issue, was founded on Java and issued Netherlands Indies gulden notes — the forerunner of today's central bank of Indonesia. In the daily life of the islands the copper duit of the VOC era went on being used for a long time, and decimalisation came only with the coinage law of the Indies of 1854. This piece was struck in 1821. It carries down to us the light and the shadow of the colony, as a fact of monetary history.