1751, Netherlands, Utrecht. Large Gold 14 Gulden “Rider” Coin.
Mint Year: 1751 Mint Place: Utrecht Denomination: Gold 14 Gulden “Golden Rider” Reference: Friedberg 288, Delmonte 970, KM-104. R! Material: Gold! (.917) Diameter: 28mm Weight: 9.92gm
Obverse: Armored knight riding horse brandishing sword galloping above crowned shield with arms of Utrecht below. Legend: BELG : TRAIECT . (privy mark: shield) MO : AUR : PRO CONFOED : Reverse: Crowned shield with dutch arms, date (17+51) split above. Value (14 GL.) in fields. Legend: CONCORDIA RES PARVAE CRESCUNT Translated: "Through concord little things grow (Union is strength) "
Utrecht, city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. In 1579 the northern seven provinces signed the Union of Utrecht, in which they decided to join forces against Spanish rule. The Union of Utrecht is seen as the beginning of the Dutch Republic. In 1580 the new and predominantly Protestant state abolished the bishoprics, including the one in Utrecht, which had become an archbishopric in 1559. The stadtholders disapproved of the independent course of the Utrecht bourgeoisie and brought the city under much more direct control of the Holland dominated leadership of the republic. This was the start of a long period of stagnation of trade and development in Utrecht, an atypical city in the new state, still about 40% Catholic in the mid-17th century, and even more so among the elite groups, who included many rural nobility and gentry with town houses there. The city, which was held against its will in the states of the Republic, failed to defend itself against the French invasion in 1672 (the Disaster Year). The lack of structural integrity proved to be the undoing of the central section of the cathedral of St Martin church when Utrecht was struck by a tornado in 1674. The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 settled the War of the Spanish Succession. In the early 19th century, the role of Utrecht as a fortified town had become obsolete.