Drugs, windmills and wooden shoes and tulips are all fake news stories. They are for tourist consumption only. Drugs use is tolerated, possession of drugs above own use is not. Drugs traders get caught. Help for users is widely available and free and that includes radio stations reporting on street prices. The result is that the per capita consumption of drugs is significantly lower than in restrictive countries, including the US and, for that matter, France.
The coin is complicated to explain. Let me take you back to the end of the Napoleonic wars. In those days, decimalisation was necessary. The big point of discussion was what the new unit of account would be. Pre-decimalisation, there were four units of account: the duit for copper, stuiver for small silver, rijksdaalder for large silver and gold rider for gold. In the years just before Napoléon, a new denomination, the gulden of 20 stuivers had become popular. This coin and the rijksdaalder of 50 stuivers, but 52 stuivers in Zeeland were the main contenders for the post of new, single unit of account.
The rijksdaalder has many supporters because it was worth 100 half stuivers, so every new coin could be expressed in half stuivers. Its detractors argued successfully that some ridiculous fractional values, like 0.05 half stuiver would be necessary. The gulden won out. Traditional non-decimal silver coin values were stuiver (1/20 gulden), double stuiver (1/10 gulden) schelling (3/10 gulden), half gulden and gulden plus multiples. Translating that to cents would have yielded a series of 5, 10, 30 and 50 cent.
My compatriots have many failures, but they are pretty brilliant at compromising and muddling through. Traditionalists wanted a 30 cent piece and a 3 gulden piece, ostensibly for trade with big brother Germany, but in fact to keep the schelling. Modernisers proposed a 25 cent piece and a 2½ gulden piece in order to get a 1-2½-5 system of 1-2½-5, 10-25-50 cents. The compromise was to issue a 25 cent piece and a 3 gulden piece, so both parties would get something. Predictably, the 3 gulden flopped. It was replaced by a 2½ gulden a few years later.
That 25 cent piece did not come out of thin air. A quarter gulden did exist before decimalisation, but it wasn't meant for circulation. It was a traditional and popular new year's gift, hence its nickname nieuwjaarspenning (new year medal). As it did not appear in any coinage law, it could not circulate, but - even though the large majority is EF or better - circulated specimen do occur. The coins were struck in official mints in good silver and sold above par. Their excellent quality was probably a sales argument and their agio provided a new year bonus to the mint masters.
On to the design. It was made at the end of the forties. It breaks with the standard portrait-and-arms formula, also by a frugal style that is not abstract (the next series would be much closer to abstract art). Thereby it contributed to moving away gradually from detailed portraits and heraldics towards modern looking design. It just wasn't enough to get rid of the windmills, wooden shoes and tulips fairy tales.
A last point on the hair net. Juliana refused to appear crowned. The diamond studded hair net was a good compromise. However, it disappeared after this series was issued. There are no pictures of it, or the queen wearing it. Nobody has come up with evidence for a solution. My own speculation is that Juliana came to hate it when it became an ersatz-crown, had it plucked apart and had the silver and diamond used for other jewellery.
Peter
