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Currency history

Dutch guilder (euro predecessor)

The Dutch guilder grew from regional gulden reckoning and became a fixed 20-stuiver account before later decimalization.

Established common account
20-stuiver Carolus reckoning required in 1526
Earlier ancestry
Rhenish/Netherlandish development; qualified
Flemish relationship
20 stuivers = 40 groten
Ancestry branch
See family connections

Sources for the facts [1] [2] [3]

Its place in the family

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Dutch guilder

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The story

The older gold-gulden tradition helps explain the name and ancestry. Leuven’s accounts show a later shift to fixed stuiver reckoning, rather than continued equality with a gold coin. [1]

The fixed gulden represented one-sixth of the Flemish pound. The wider Dutch connection is a reconstruction across regional histories, not a single national change in 1460. [2] [4]

The Carolus account and later Dutch guilder continued through changing coinage and decimal subdivisions. Bank money remained a distinct account. [3] [5] [6]

Turning points

Carolus accounting

Twenty-stuiver Carolus reckoning is required. [3]

Changing monetary anchors

Flemish groot–pound reckoning · After 1460 · regional fixed-account adoption; precise transition uncertain
20 stuivers = 40 Flemish groten = one-sixth Flemish pound Terms and evidence ↗

Sources and evidence

  1. John H. Munro · Money and Coinage in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe (undated)
  2. John H. Munro · Money and Coinage in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe (undated)
  3. Koninklijke Nederlandse Munt, 5 July 2012 · Geschiedenis van de gulden; John H. Munro, University of Toronto · The Coinages of the United Provinces (the northern Netherlands), of the Spanish (southern) Netherlands, Spain, and England; Joke Mooij, Studies over de sociaaleconomische geschiedenis van Limburg 49 (2004) · Guldens versus franken en thalers: de geldcirculatie in Limburg tussen 1839–1914
  4. John H. Munro · Money and Coinage in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe (undated); Hans de Heij, De Nederlandsche Bank · Designing Banknote Identity (2012)
  5. Joke Mooij, Studies over de sociaaleconomische geschiedenis van Limburg 49 (2004) · Guldens versus franken en thalers: de geldcirculatie in Limburg tussen 1839–1914
  6. Quinn and Roberds · Quinn and Roberds, The Big Problem of Large Bills (2005), Atlanta WP 2005-16

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Cite this page

“Dutch guilder (euro predecessor).” The Family Tree of Money. © Field Technologies, Inc. Updated 2026-10-14; data version v49. https://familytreeofmoney.org/currency/FTM000337.html

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