Friesland Ducat

The Friesland Ducat's knight design, a holdover from medieval seals, made it one of the few Dutch coins to retain such an archaic motif well into the 18th century. This gold piece, struck in Friesland from 1581 to 1795, weighed about 3.5 grams and contained over 98% pure gold, drawn from local mines and imported bullion. Minters in Leeuwarden hammered these on irregular planchets, sometimes repurposing metal from older coins to meet demand during wars.

Exact mintage figures are murky; records from the era were often incomplete or destroyed in later conflicts. Still, these ducats circulated widely in trade, from Amsterdam's markets to distant ports. One dry note: spotting a well-preserved specimen today is like finding a straight answer in an old ledger—rarer than you'd think.

We know variations existed, with some bearing dates and others not, but the full sequence of issues remains unclear.