Netherlands 5 cents 1850

The coin's story

This tiny 5 cents coin in 640 thousandths silver, weighing 0.685 g for 12.5 mm, belongs to the series struck from 1850 to 1887 in the name of William III. William III, King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg, reigned from 1849 until his death on 23 November 1890, his daughter Wilhelmina succeeded him in the Netherlands, while Luxembourg, reserved for male heirs, passed to Adolphe of Nassau. The portrait is the work of Johannes Petrus Schouberg, engraver at the Utrecht Mint, who signs I.P.S. The reverse shows the value and the date within a wreath, with the mintmaster's privy mark on the left and the mint mark on the right. The 1850 date, the first of the series, was struck in 3,037,000 pieces at Utrecht, under the mintmaster Herman Adriaan van den Wall Bake. It exists with or without a dot after the date.