West Friesland, United Provinces of the Netherlands, 1599
Australian National Maritime Museum
On the obverse side, it depicts William the Silent holding a sword over his right shoulder, accompanied by the Latin inscription DEUS FORTITUDO ET SPES NOSTRA (‘God is our strength and hope’). The reverse side showcases the coat of arms of the Province of West Friesland, with the inscription MONETA NOVA ARGENTEA DOMINIUM WEST FRISLANDIAE (‘new silver money of the domain of West Friesland’).
This silver coin was retrieved from the wreck of the VOC ship Batavia off the coast of Western Australia in the 1970s. It symbolises why the Dutch, and other European nations, made the long journey to the East Indies (present day Indonesia): to obtain spices. Silver was about the only commodity the Asian markets would exchange for these spices. The Batavia was carrying twelve chests of silver coins, 8000 coins per chest, when it was shipwrecked in 1629. This coin is from two of the chests the VOC were unable to recover at the time. Like many that were found on the wreck site, the coin is a lot older than the wreck itself. This is because the Dutch had limited supplies of silver at the time, due to its war of independence from Spain, leading them to collect and send old bullion to the East Indies.
Such transoceanic journeys, motivated by spice and funded, in part, by silver, led to Dutch colonisation of the East Indies and to the European exploration and colonisation of Australia.
Catalogue Number: ANMM Collection 00016370 - Transferred from Australian Netherlands Committee on Old Dutch Shipwrecks, 1991
Material: silver
Dimensions: Height 4 cm, Width 4 cm, Depth 0.2 cm