2016-04-02 Sat

The Karel de Geus auction on April 12th is going to host a Netherlands silver 2.5-guilder coin from World War II celebrating Dutch Queen Wilhelmina in exile. The piece has an opening bid of €50 and is in very fine condition.

After German forces crossed the border on May 10, 1940, Queen Wilhelmina and the royal family fled to UK on a British destroyer. Dutch residents turned coins depicting the exiled ruler into jewellery and created numismatic folk art.

The coins show the queen wearing a Dutch army helmet, with the normal legend on the coin modified to read ‘WILHELMINA IN LONDEN’, or sometimes ‘LONDON’ - a reference to the English hosting the Dutch royal family.