Gulden, the Name of a Coin That Was Once an Adjective

A Coin Called the Golden Florin

The word Gulden was originally an adjective meaning 'golden.' This was when the florin-type gold coin, created in Florence, spread to the Low Countries and German-speaking regions. People called this gold coin the 'golden florin,' and eventually, only the adjective part remained as the name for the gold coin itself.

Strong currencies are imitated. The lords along the Rhine borrowed the florin, including its lily design, and Hungary also copied its standard. Imitation was also an act of spreading the original standard as a benchmark. This was because if the imitators did not adhere to the standard, which was the source of value, their coins would be meaningless. Thus, the Florentine lily became a common language for European gold coins, and the name Gulden also remained in various regions. The Dutch guilder is also a name in this lineage.

Recreating the Value of a Gold Coin in Silver

The gulden was not only the name of a gold coin but also a unit for measuring value. A little over sixty years after the fall of Constantinople, Europe discovered a new silver mountain in the Bohemian valley of Joachimsthal. Silver was found on the lands of the Schlick family in 1516.

The large silver coins struck here were called Joachimsthaler, and later Thaler. The first Thaler was struck on January 9, 1520. It weighed about twenty-nine grams and had a diameter of about forty millimeters. This single coin was designed to have the same value as one gold gulden. In other words, it was a gold coin remade in silver.

A Name That Grew in the Ledgers

In the Low Countries, an attempt was made to unify four provinces under a single currency. This attempt was motivated by fiscal and commercial practicalities, and it was not a complete story, as some lands like Guelders and Utrecht remained outside the framework. Nevertheless, within the ledgers of this unification, a name grew: the Gulden.

In the Low Countries, the conversion rate of one gulden to twenty stuivers became established, and the gulden became a unit of account that functioned in ledgers. It established its role first as a unit of calculation, rather than as a physical coin.

A Name Detaching from Metal

The name Gulden originally meant 'golden,' but it gradually detached from any specific metal. In 1521, the gold Carolusgulden, and in 1543, the silver Carolusgulden, were both set at the same value of twenty stuivers.

This event shows that the name Gulden had become a unit that no longer signified gold. And it was not until much later, in 1680, that the first physical one-gulden silver coin was struck. With this silver coin issued by the province of Holland, the name that had been a unit of account once again became a coin that people could touch.

In 1816, one gulden became one hundred cents, and the later conversion rate was one euro = 2.20371 gulden.