Netherlands, Ducat 1749 - Holland, Dordrecht

A ducat from the first ever issue of ducats of the Netherlands type with a reeded edge. In 1749, there were two issues of gold ducats of the province of Holland: with the mintmark between the knight’s legs, slightly above the legend, and without it. The introduced visual marking for this date allowed the new type of ducats – with a reeded edge – to be immediately identified. This was introduced to put an end to the then popular practice of scraping gold ducats. At the same time, it was forbidden to mint gold ducats without a reeded edge in other provinces.