The guilder (Dutch: gulden, pronounced [ˈɣʏldə(n)] ⓘ) or florin was the currency of the Netherlands from 1434 until 2002, when it was replaced by the euro.
The Dutch name gulden was a Middle Dutch adjective meaning 'golden', and reflects the fact that, when first introduced in 1434, its value was about equal to (i.e., it was on par with) the Italian gold florin. The Dutch guilder was a de facto reserve currency in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Between 1999 and 2002, the guilder was officially a "national subunit" of the euro. However, physical payments could only be made in guilders, as no euro coins or banknotes were available. The exact exchange rate, still relevant for old contracts and for exchange of the old currency for euros at the central bank, is exactly 2.20371 Dutch guilders for 1 euro. Inverted, this gives approximately 0.453780 euros for 1 guilder.
Derived from the Dutch guilder were the Netherlands Antillean guilder (Used by Curaçao and Sint Maarten until 2025, replaced by the Caribbean guilder) and the Surinamese guilder (replaced in 2004 by the Surinamese dollar).
History
The gulden emerged as the official currency of the Burgundian Netherlands after the 1434 monetary reform done under Philip the Good. This table summarizes the gulden's value in terms of silver until the gold standard was introduced in 1875.
Prior to 1434 the Dutch issued currency conforming to the Carolingian monetary system, with a pound divided into 20 shillings and a shilling divided into 12 pennies. Dutch versions of the penny first came out in the 9th century, followed by local versions of the one-shilling gros tournois in the 13th century. The most notable version of the latter, the Flemish grote, subsequently depreciated faster than its counterparts in France, from its initial fine silver content of 4.044 g, to around 2.5 g by 1350, and to just 0.815 g before the reforms of 1434.
1434–1466: Burgundian Netherlands
Philip the Good devised a monetary system in 1434 relating the new Dutch currency to that of its neighbors: the French livre parisis of 38.25 g silver, and the English pound sterling of 215.8 g. The following units were defined:
- The stuiver of 1.63 g fine silver, equal to 2 Flemish grote or 3 Brabant grote, and approximately equal to the French sol (shilling) of 1.9125 g;
- The gulden, equal to 20 stuiver or 32.6 g fine silver, and approximately equal to the French livre parisis. As the French gold livre was about par with the gold florin of 3.5 g, this new denomination was therefore known as the gouden florijn, or gulden, or florin.
- The shilling Flemish (Schelling Vlaams), equal to 12 Flemish grote or 6 stuivers, and approximately equal to the English shilling of 12 pence sterling.
- And finally, the pound Flemish (pond Vlaams), equal to 240 Flemish grote or 6 gulden, and at 195.6 g fine silver was approximately equal to the English pound sterling.
The stuiver weighed 3.4 g of 23⁄48 silver fineness and was divided into 8 duiten or 16 penningen. As each stuiver was worth approximately 2 English pence, Dutch silver denominations of 1 duit and 1⁄4, 1⁄2, 1 and 2 stuivers neatly matched with English denominations of 1⁄4, 1⁄2, 1, 2 and 4 pence sterling (the latter two sterling coins were rarely minted).
French écus, English nobles and Dutch florins comprised the gold currency of the Low Countries and had a variable rate against the stuiver. A denomination worth 1 gulden did not exist until the 1464 issue of the Sint Andries florin containing 2.735 g of fine gold, but this was a mere two years before the resumption of debasements in the stuiver.
1500–1560: Spanish Netherlands
The stuiver modestly depreciated between 1466 and 1475 before incurring more significant debasements up to the end of the 15th century. From 1469 to 1475 an agreement with England made the English groat (4-pence; 2.88 g fine silver) mutually exchangeable with the Burgundian double patard (or 2-stuiver) minted under Charles the Bold.
Follow-up attempts to issue 1-gulden coins resulted in the minting of the gold Karolusgulden of 1.77 g fine gold in 1520, and the silver Karolusgulden of 19.07 grams fine silver in 1541. The bullion content of French and English currencies eventually approached this value, with the French livre parisis becoming 20.4 g fine silver in 1549, and 1⁄6th of a pound sterling (3 shillings and 4 pence) becoming 19.2 g fine silver in 1551.
1618: Dutch Republic
The pace of depreciation of the Gulden quickened in the second half of the 16th century amidst the huge influx of precious metals from Germany and Spanish America arriving through the Habsburg Netherlands.
The loss in silver content of local Dutch coins in the form of stuivers, schellings (6 stuivers) and daalders (1+1⁄2 gulden or 30 stuivers) was the result of different provinces continually testing the market with coins of slightly reduced silver, aiming for their acceptance at par with full-bodied coins. As the Northern Dutch Republic just declared its independence from the Spanish crown, there was no central authority powerful enough to penalize the provinces responsible for the deterioration of the quality of Dutch currency. The inevitable official acceptance of new, debased rates for the gulden only set the stage for the next round of depreciations.
As a result, the gulden equivalent of different trade coins passing through the Low Countries also rose in value, as follows:
- The German Reichsthaler of 25.98 g fine silver was valued at 32 stuivers (1.6 G) in 1566.
- The Dutch Republic's leeuwendaalder (lion dollar) of 20.57 g fine silver was valued at 32 stuivers (1.6 G) in 1575.
- The Dutch Republic's Rijksdaalder of 25.40 g fine silver, a local version of the German reichsthaler, was valued at 42 stuivers (2.1 G) in 1583, and repeatedly raised in value until it reached 50 stuivers (2.5 G) in 1618 – hence, 10.16 g silver in a gulden.
- The Spanish Netherlands' Patagon or Albertus thaler of 24.56 g fine silver, valued at 8 shillings Flemish (48 stuivers, 2.4 G) in 1618.
- The Spanish Netherlands' ducaton of 30.70 g fine silver, valued at 10 shillings Flemish (60 stuivers, 3 G) in 1618.
The solution which immediately halted the downward spiral of the gulden was the establishment of the Amsterdam Wisselbank (Bank of Amsterdam) in 1609, mandated to accept and assay the bullion content of coins received from its depositors, and then to credit the equivalent of 1 Rijksdaalder (2+1⁄2 gulden after 1618) for each 25.40 g fine silver actually received. Combined with rules requiring payments above 600 gulden to be cleared through the bank, it halted incentives for provinces to tamper with the silver content of its coins.
In 1626, Pieter Schaghen wrote in Dutch of the purchase of "the Island Manhattes" (Manhattan) "from the Indians for the value of 60 guilders".
1659: Gulden currency and banco
Even with the Bank of Amsterdam's success in halting the depreciation of Dutch currency, attempts to further increase the stuiver equivalent of trade coins continued among the provinces. After the 1630s came moves to raise the Patagon's value from 48 to 50 stuivers (4.17% advance), followed by moves to raise the Ducaton's value from 60 to 63 stuivers (5.0% advance). Fearing damage to its Europe-wide reputation if 50-stuiver deposits in rixdollars were repaid in cheaper 50-stuiver patagons, in the 1640s the bank firmly rejected the advanced values of these coins and upheld its old values of 48 and 60 stuivers.
This was the origin of a permanent Gulden Banco valued at 5% more against provincial Gulden currency valuations. In 1659 the Dutch Republic made this duality permanent by issuing its own trade coins, namely:
- The silver ducat (zilveren dukaat; also called Rijksdaalder) of 24.36 g fine silver, replacing the Patagon and valued at 48 stuivers banco (2.4 GB) or 50 stuivers currency (2.5 G).
- The Silver Rider Ducaton of 30.45 g fine silver, replacing the Ducaton and valued at 60 stuivers banco (3 GB) or 63 stuivers currency (3.15 G).
The result was a gulden banco unit of 10.15 g silver and a gulden currency unit of 9.67 g silver as determined from the ducaton. These reforms helped cement the Dutch Republic's role as Europe's financial center, made the Bank of Amsterdam the world's first modern central bank, and made the bank-stabilized gulden as Europe's de facto reserve currency until the end of the 18th century. In 1694, a new mint ordinance recognized the gulden as a valid coin for the entire Republic.
As the bank was also an active reseller of negotiepenningen, or trade coins that happen to be undervalued in the Netherlands (e.g. older rixdollars still valued at 50 stuivers currency), Dutch trade coins like lion dollars, rixdollars and silver ducats were exported and became staple currency for the rest of Europe until the end of the 18th century. The Royal Dutch Mint still mints the famed silver ducat to this day.
A silver 1-gulden denomination weighing 10.61 g, 0.91 fine, was minted by the States of Holland and West Friesland in 1680. The gulden design featured Pallas Athena standing, holding a spear topped by a hat in her right hand, resting with her left forearm on Gospels set on an ornate basis, with a small shield in the legend.
19th century: United Netherlands
Following the collapse of the Bank of Amsterdam in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, in 1817 the United Kingdom of the Netherlands redefined the Gulden as either 9.613 g silver or 0.60561 g gold. It was decimally divided into 100 cents, and the 1-gulden coin was permanently issued. This standard was doomed to fail due to
- the existence in the former Austrian Netherlands of silver kronenthalers of 25.71 g fine silver valued at 2.7 gulden (hence, only 9.52 g per gulden), and
- the gulden's gold equivalent of 0.60561 g, at a gold–silver ratio of 15.5 in neighboring France, being worth only 9.39 g in silver.
Following Belgium's secession from the Netherlands in 1830, a more permanent solution was implemented in 1840 by reducing the gulden to 9.45 g fine silver and repealing its fixed equivalence in gold.
Gold standard
As a result of the adoption of the gold standard by the newly established German Empire in 1873, the Netherlands in 1875 repealed the free coinage of silver into gulden coins, substituted by the free coinage of gold into 10-gulden coins containing 6.048 g fine gold. This arrangement continued until the worldwide suspension of the gold standard in 1914 due to the First World War. The gold standard was revived in 1925 but was abandoned in 1936.
After 1914
In 1914, the guilder was traded at a rate of 2.46 guilders = 1 U.S. dollar. As of 1938, the rate was 1.82 guilders = 1 U.S. dollar. One Dutch guilder in 1914 could buy roughly the same amount of goods and services as US$10.02 or €8.17 in December 2017. In 1938, the guilder purchasing power would be approximately equal to US$9.54 or €7.78 in December 2017. Overall, the guilder remained a very stable currency and was also the third highest-valued currency unit in Europe in the interwar period (after the British pound sterling and the Irish pound, which, at this time, were pegged to each other at par).
Following the German occupation, on 10 May 1940, the guilder was pegged to the Reichsmark at a rate of 1 guilder = 1.5 Reichsmark. This rate was reduced to 1.327 on 17 July of the same year. The liberating Allied forces set an exchange rate of 2.652 guilders = 1 U.S. dollar, which became the peg for the guilder within the Bretton Woods system. In 1949, the peg was changed to 3.8 guilders = 1 dollar, approximately matching the devaluation of the British pound. In 1961, the guilder was revalued to 3.62 guilders = 1 dollar, a change approximately in line with that of the German mark. After 1967 guilders were made from nickel instead of silver.
Euro changeover
In 2002, the guilder was replaced by the euro at an exchange rate of 2.20371 guilders = €1. Coins remained exchangeable for euros at branches of the Netherlands Central Bank until 1 January 2007. Most guilder banknotes that were valid at the time of conversion can be exchanged until the deadline of 1 January 2032. There are some exceptions to this, and furthermore no banknote received as payment for commercial goods or services after 27 January 2002 is exchangeable. See Banknotes of the Dutch guilder for a full list of guilder banknotes and their last valid exchange date.
Coins
In the 18th century, coins were issued by the various provinces. There were copper 1 duit, silver 1, 2, 6 and 10 stuivers, 1 and 3 guilders, 1⁄2 and 1 silver ducat rijksdaalder and 1⁄2 and 1 silver rider ducaton. Gold 1 and 2 ducat trade coins were also minted. Between 1795 and 1806, the Batavian Republic issued coins in similar denominations to the earlier provincial issues. The Kingdom of Holland minted silver 10 stuivers, 1 florin and 1 guilder (equivalent), 50 stuivers and 2+1⁄2 guilder (also equivalent) and 1 rijksdaalder, along with gold 10 and 20 guilders. Before decimalization, the Kingdom of the Netherlands briefly issued some 1 rijksdaalder coins.