Gelderland Silver Stiver

The Gelderland silver stiver's most intriguing feature is its frequent use of recycled silver from captured Spanish coins, a practical nod to the province's role in the Eighty Years' War.

This made for inconsistent purity and weight, which frustrated merchants and amused counterfeiters alike. Struck in various mints across Gelderland, like Arnhem, the coin typically displayed the provincial arms—a wild man holding a club—on one side, with inscriptions that varied by year.

Exact mintage figures are murky; records from that era often burned in fires or were lost to time. Still, these stivers circulated as everyday currency, from local markets to distant trade routes.

Design variations abound, with some showing crude strikes that hint at wartime haste.