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Lot 909
Netherlands East Indies. Crown, or Real of 48 Stuivers, 1645 (Batavia). Scholten 12; Bucknill 39; Maillet, pl. xiii, 1; Catalogus Bataviaasch Genootschap 34 (this coin); Dav-415; KM-34, and p.895, this coin. 26.02 grams. Netherlands East India Company. Upright sword with filleted laurel wreath behind; BATAVIAE ANNO 1645, around. Reverse: VOC monogram, with value above, four arabesques around. Old institution number, "34," lightly inked in the obverse field at five o'clock. Deeply toned. Of the Highest Rarity! The finest of six known specimens. NGC graded EF-45.
This is the first silver dollar-sized coin minted in the Orient! To combat a local shortage of silver in the Dutch Indies, pieces having a value of 12, 24, and 48 Stuivers were cast locally to lighter standard, with the 48 Stuivers being equal in weight to seven-eighths of a Lion Daalder. These were also, the first round silver coins made anywhere in the Orient. However, they were eventually withdrawn from circulation in 1647.
During its history of nearly 200 years, the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie or V.O.C) became the largest company of its kind, and one of the most profitable -- trading in spices like nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, pepper, and other scarce and coveted consumer products such as tea, silk, and Chinese porcelain, and, most importantly, coffee.
The preliminaries to the Company can be traced to the 1580's and 90's, with the incorporation of Portugal into the Hapsburg's Spanish holdings (where it would remain for sixty years). During that time, some Dutch prisoners, who had been sentenced to galley duty, wound up traveling to India aboard Portuguese ships. Later, during the Dutch revolt for independence, some of these liberated galley slaves would would prove to be of momentous importance to their fellow Dutchmen. Portugal, who had a lock on the sea trade routes to Africa and India, had treated the trading knowledge, their maps and navigation routes as state secrets. To adventurous Dutch captains, Portugal's secrets were now an open book because of these former Dutch prisoners. In 1596 four Dutch ships sailed off to Java. Within two years, twenty-two ships had sailed to the far East, with thirteen having returned loaded with spices. The profits were such as to quickly inspire other shippers to follow. Amsterdam immediately became Europe's new center for exotic, foreign goods. Within a few years the competition among their fellow traders was so intense, that prices rose and profits plummeted. The native chiefs in the East Indies were becoming rich, while the Dutch entrepreneurs were barely making ends meet. As has been seen earlier in their history, in finance and commerce the Dutch are an extremely practical people. Thus their solution for too much competition in trade was was plain and simple: put an end to competition.
So in 1602, the Dutch government had those merchants involved in the East Indies trade form a company, the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, allowing them the monopoly of all trade and shipping outside the Atlantic Ocean area. The V.O.C. became a huge success. It dominated the spice trade in the area, pushing out the English and Portuguese as competitors, and eventually becoming a virtual monopoly of that market. Similarly the V.O.C., from 1641 onward, also enjoyed a monopoly in the trade with Japan, again forcing out not only English and Portuguese competition, but the Spanish also. By the 17th century, the V.O.C. was the most important European company in the Asia trade.
Excerpt from Jacques Schulman letter:
Amsterdam, August 29th. 1986
"Speaking of rarety: Only 6 pieces of this coin are known:
1. In the Royal Coin Cabinet The Hague, in this collection already before 1890.
2. A museum in Rotterdam from our auction 1951 originally from the Rijnbende collection (1890).
3. Baldwin London bought a specimen in our november 1960 sale which originated from the Moquette collection, our sale May 1929. I have no record as to where this piece is at the moment.
4. The specimen from the Stephanik collection (sold in 1904). All coins of the Dutch East Indies were sold as one lot, the buyer however is unknown to us.
5. The Ran Zander specimen, the origin of which is not known to me.
6. This specimen. From the Museum of Batavia (hence the no. 34 in ink on the coin), and already listed in their catalogue of 1896!
Further "proof" of its rarety is the fact that such famous collectors as Virgill Brand and Garett never possesed this coin."
Estimated Value $70,000 - 80,000.
Ex Batavia Museum Collection (note ink #34 on obverse)
Illustrated in Money of The World, coin 110.
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| Realized $132,250 |
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