1747, Netherlands, Zeeland Province. Copper Duit Coin.
Mint Year: 1747
Province: Zeeland
Denomination: Duit
Reference: KM-81
Material: Copper
Diameter: 22mm
Weight: 2.87gm
Obverse: Crowned shield with arms of Zeeland (Lion behind sea waves). Legend: LUCTOR . ET . EMERGO
Reverse: Mint mark (castle), flanked by stars, above province name and date. Legend: * (castle) * ZEE/LAN/DIA. .1747 .
The duit was a Dutch coin worth 2 penning, with 8 duit equal to one stuiver and 160 duit equal to one gulden. It was once used in the Americas while under Dutch rule. The name of the coin was preserved for a long time in the ‘fourduitcoin’ (or plak), because it was the biggest bronze coin of its time and it was worth half a stuiver (or 2,5 cent).
Zeeland was a contested area between the counts of Holland and Flanders until 1299, when the count of Holland gained control of the countship of Zeeland. Since then, Zeeland followed the fate of Holland. In 1432 it became part of the Low Countries possessions of Philip the Good of Burgundy, the later Seventeen Provinces. Through marriage, the Seventeen Provinces became property of the Habsburgs in 1477. In the Eighty Years' War, Zeeland was on the side of the Union of Utrecht, and became one of the United Provinces. The area now called Zeeuws-Vlaanderen was not part of Zeeland, but a part of the countship of Flanders (still under Habsburg) that was conquered by the United Provinces, hence called Staats-Vlaanderen (see: Generality Lands). After the French occupation (see département Bouches-de-l’Escaut) and the formation of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815, the present province Zeeland was formed.