The Modern Proof Silver Ducat

An overlooked, historically significant series

While gold Ducat coins existed for hundreds of years prior, the Silver Ducat was first issued by the Netherlands as legal tender in 1659 and were produced until 1794. The Royal Dutch Mint began issuing a collectible proof version of the Silver Ducat in 1989 and have issued new coins annually ever since. This is a very eye-appealing modern series and due to its history as trade coinage, it’s very collectible. However, for some unknown reason, it’s not well collected.

2006 Netherlands Silver Ducat

The Netherlands has recently issued some gold and silver restrikes of its older and popular coins, such as the 6 Stuivers and Silver Rider. They’re very popular and prices of these modern restrikes have fetched large sums of money. Just recently, on August 14, 2021, a Heritage Auction of a 2020-struck 2 oz gold restrike of a Silver Rider coin hammered for over $14,000. Even with a mintage of only 20 examples, it’s a rather extreme amount of money for a coin issued less than 2 years ago. I tend to stay far away from modern forced-rarities and the mania and money following them. Instead I try to see what the market has overlooked, and I believe this series of Proof Silver Ducats is one of them.

The NGC and PCGS populations of these coins are so tiny, they’re not worth mentioning at the moment. No one is hoarding them, no one is getting them slabbed, other than myself. The vast majority I’ve purchased in their original packaging have been grading PF69 and PF70.

I’ve taken the liberty of collecting as much information as possible on mintage numbers:

As you can see, some of the dates are quite low, four issues falling below 3000 examples. And what’s amazing is, if you know what you’re doing, you can find these in their original packaging for less than 50 bucks. And I can help you find them. If you go to Ebay and search for “Silver Ducat” you may not find any. However, if you change the search location from “Default” to “Worldwide” and put into your search bar…

(zilveren, zilver) (dukaat, dukaten)

… you should find quite a few. Unless someone else beat you to them.

It’s worth mentioning, if you haven’t done so already, it’s a good idea to pick up my e-book, Tips & Tricks for Finding Coins on eBay on Amazon. It’s an absolute bargain at only 4 bucks.