2017-11-10 Fri

A significant change occurred in the Dutch coinage, after the appointment of the Royal Dutch Mint’s new mint-master, Stephan Satijn in September. All the coins and medals from the Netherlands will don a new privy mark to symbolize his tenure.

Many countries used to follow the same tradition but they all discontinued. In a tribute to his birth city, Satijn has chosen the oldest bridge in the Netherlands, the St. Servatius Bridge in Maastricht, as his emblem. The image also depicts both the role of the mint-master as a bridge builder and the connection between public and private now that the mint is privately owned. Over the past two years, when the role of mint-master is being filled on an interim basis, interim appointees Kees Bruinsma and Ted Peters add a star to the old privy mark.

To commemorate Satijn’s appointment, a limited amount of transition sets are being offered. These consist of coins with the new privy mark and the others that have been used since the departure of the last mint-master, Maarten Brouwer, in 2015. Each transition set consists of five to eight coin sets in Brilliant Uncirculated and Proof quality. Two of the sets are only available in the transition sets, as they are not meant for circulation.

The sets offered were:

2015: Sailing Clipper (Maarten Brouwer).

2015: Sailing Clipper with a star (Interim Mint Master Kees Bruinsma).

2016: Sailing Clipper with a star (Interim Mintmaster Kees Bruinsma).

2017: Sailing Clipper with a star (Interim Mintmaster Ted Peters).

2017: St. Servatius Bridge (Stephan Satijn).

The transition Brilliant Uncirculated set offers 40 coins dated 2015 to 2017 and was limited to a mintage of 5,000 sets. It was sold at an issue price of $235.

The transition Proof set also offers 40 coins dated 2015 to 2017 and was limited to a 1,000-set mintage. It was sold at an issue price of $475.

The regular ringed-bimetallic €2 coin with the St. Servatius Bridge privy mark was offered in a BU version, with a coin card. It has a mintage limit of 20,000 pieces and is sold at an issue price of $17.50. A Proof issue was limited to 2,000 coins.

The Royal Dutch Mint ceased taking orders for the coins on 30th Oct. Collectors seeking the coins will have to acquire them on the secondary market.