Netherlands, Kampen Duit 1660 (No reserve price)

Republic of the Seven United Netherlands – Kampen – Copper 1660

Kampen · 1 duis? (⅛ stuiver) · 1660 · Copper · ca. 2.0 g · ca. 20 mm

A copper ducat (duit) from the town of Kampen, minted in 1660, during the First Stadtholderless Period (1650–1672). A characteristic urban issue from Overijssel, on which Kampen's city coat of arms occupies a prominent place.

Obverse:
The crowned and richly adorned city coat of arms of Kampen, consisting of the well-known city gate with towers. The arms directly refer to Kampen's independent status and urban identity.

Reverse:
The town name and the year in three lines:

CAM
PEN
1660

The duit belonged to the smallest and most used denominations within the currency system of the Republic. With a value of one-eighth stuiver, eight duits made a stuiver and 160 in a gulden. It was precisely these copper coins that circulated intensely in everyday payments and were used for the smallest purchases.

Kampen, as one of the leading IJssel cities, had a long local minting tradition. The town’s position on the IJssel and near the Zuiderzee had centuries kept it closely connected with regional and international trading flows. The local urban minting is a tangible numismatic reflection of that.

The design of this duit is simple yet distinctly urban in character. The crowned city coat of arms dominates the obverse, while the reverse with the name CAM/PEN arranged in three lines leaves no doubt about the issuing city. The year 1660 places the coin in the middle of a peculiar political era in which a large part of the Republic was governed without a stadtholder.

A characteristic seventeenth‑century urban duit, attractive for the combination of the recognizable Kampen city arms, the explicit city name, and the fully dated nature of the emission.

References: CNM 2.30.83 · PW 7206

Kampen, 1660. An appealing piece of urban coin history from the heart of the Republic.