3 Gulden Dutch Republic (1581 - 1795) Silver

KM# 117 1794, Netherlands, Utrecht. Heavy Silver 3 Gulden of 60 Stuiver Coin.

Mint Year: 1794
Mint Place: Utrecht

State: United Provinces
Denomination: 3 Gulden (60 Stuivers)
Province: West Friesland (North Holland)
Reference: Davenport 1852, Delmonte 1150, KM-117.
Material: Silver (.920)
Weight: 30.83gm
Diameter: 40mm

Obverse: Standig togate personification of the Dutch Republic (Hollandia), wearing plummed helmet, holding reversed spear, topped by a hat and leaning on book, placed on a decorated column. Date (1794) below.
Legend (motto) : HANC TVEMVR – HAC NITIMVR / 1794
Translated:"This we defend, by this we strive!"

Reverse: Crowned shield of the United Provinces, splitting denomination (3-Gl.).
Legend: MO : ARG : ORD : FOE : BELG : TRAI :
Expanded: "MOneta ORDinum FAEDERatorum BELGicarum TRAIectum"
Translated: "Coin of government of the federation of Belgium, Utrecht"

Utrecht, city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. In 1579 the northern seven provinces signed the Union of Utrecht, in which they decided to join forces against Spanish rule. The Union of Utrecht is seen as the beginning of the Dutch Republic. In 1580 the new and predominantly Protestant state abolished the bishoprics, including the one in Utrecht, which had become an archbishopric in 1559. The stadtholders disapproved of the independent course of the Utrecht bourgeoisie and brought the city under much more direct control of the Holland dominated leadership of the republic. This was the start of a long period of stagnation of trade and development in Utrecht, an atypical city in the new state, still about 40% Catholic in the mid-17th century, and even more so among the elite groups, who included many rural nobility and gentry with town houses there. The city, which was held against its will in the states of the Republic, failed to defend itself against the French invasion in 1672 (the Disaster Year). The lack of structural integrity proved to be the undoing of the central section of the cathedral of St Martin church when Utrecht was struck by a tornado in 1674. The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 settled the War of the Spanish Succession. In the early 19th century, the role of Utrecht as a fortified town had become obsolete.

The Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (or “of the Seven United Provinces”) (Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden/Provinciën; also Dutch Republic or United Provinces in short, Foederatae Belgii Provinciae or Belgica Foederata in Latin) was a European republic between 1581 and 1795, in about the same location as the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands, which is the successor state.

Before 1581, the area of the Low Countries consisted of a number of duchies, counties, and independent bishoprics, some but not all of them part of the Holy Roman Empire. Today that area is divided between the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and parts of France and Germany. The Low Countries in the 16th century roughly corresponded to the Seventeen Provinces covered by the Pragmatic Sanction of 1549 of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

Through marriage, war or sale, these states were acquired by the Habsburg emperor Charles V and his son, king Philip II of Spain. In 1568, the Netherlands, led by William I of Orange, revolted against Philip II because of high taxes, persecution of Protestants by the government, and Philip’s efforts to modernize and centralize the devolved medieval government structures of the provinces. This was the start of the Eighty Years' War.

In 1579, a number of the northern provinces of the Netherlands signed the Union of Utrecht, in which they promised to support each other in their defence against the Spanish army. This was followed in 1581 by the Act of Abjuration, the declaration of independence in which the provinces officially deposed Philip II.

The United Provinces first tried to choose their own lord, and they asked the Duke of Anjou (sovereign from 1581-1583) to rule them. Later, after the assassination of William of Orange (July 10, 1584), both Henry III of France and Elizabeth I of England declined the offer of sovereignty. However, the latter agreed to turn the United Provinces into a protectorate of England (Treaty of Nonsuch, 1585), and sent the Earl of Leicester as governor-general. This was not a success, and in 1588 the provinces became a Republic.