Teylers Museum Numismatic Cabinet

Teylers Museum is the first and the oldest Dutch museum, open to the public continuously since 1784. The museum is located in the Haarlem city center, in the building at 16 Spaarne Street, on the bank of the Spaarne River. The building remains untouched yet today, its interior looks exactly like it did in the 18th century. Also, the presentation of all collections has not changed significantly in time.

 

Teylers Museum – the first and the oldest museum in the Netherlands

The name of Teylers Museum originated from its founder. The museum was founded in 1778 by a very wealthy silk merchant and banker, Pieter Teyler van der Hulst. He was born on March 25, 1702, died on April 8, 1778 childless. His legacy, at the time, was estimated at two million florins (about 80 million euros = 87 million US dollars today). In addition to great collections of art (including Michelangelo’s and Rembrandt’s works), minerals and fossils, Teylers Museum has a great Numismatic Cabinet with almost 300 Dutch gold ducats including sets of:

  • West Friesland gold ducats (128 coins), including 11 double ducats from the 18th century, most of them known in this one example only. All of them preserved in uncirculated or in extremely fine condition. The West-Frisian collection was brought together by the collector Adriaan Justus Enschedé (1829-1896) and Marco Woestenburg (1960-2015).
  • Gelderland ducats (65 coins), donated to the museum by a rich and skilled coin collector, Mr Th. M. Roest in 1898. When he died, he left his wonderful collection to Teylers Museum. Among other coins, a 1761 Gelderland double ducat, bought in August 1890 at the auction of the Rijnbende Collection by Mr Roest, was donated to the museum.
  • Bergh (‘s-Heerenberg and Hedel) ducats, including the only known copy of 1577 ‘s-Heerenberg gold ducat with St. Oswald.
  • Amsterdam ducats minted in 1673, including the only known copy of piedfort ducat minted in an official Amsterdam mint.
  • Batenburg ducats – the largest selection of these ducats known (15 copies), including a copy of the double ducat with Jesus and Pharisees.
  • minor collections of provincial Holland, Utrecht and Friesland gold ducats and of pre-provincial ducats from Middelburg (gold kroon) and Nijmegen (four copies of undated double ducat).

 

Visiting Teylers Museum

Many of these coins are the best condition of all copies known. In particular, West Friesland single and double gold ducats from the 18th century are worth mentioning here. All numismatic items of Teylers Museum are organized, pictured and described very well. The great collection of coins is also appended with a wide selection of numismatic literature from several centuries. What’s more, the Museum co-operates with researchers from all over the world.

Examples of the Netherlands ducats from Teylers Museum Coin Cabinet, minted in the pre-provincial period