The duit () (plural: ''duiten''; - "A small Dutch coin formerly in use, the eighth part of a stiver, or the half of an English farthing; hence (chiefly in negative phrases) as the type of a very small or trifling sum.") was an old low-value

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

coin A coin is a small object, usually round and flat, used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order to facilitate trade. They are most often issued by ...

. Struck in the 17th and 18th centuries in the territory of the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...

, it became an international currency. It held significant importance in both Dutch domestic and colonial trade, particularly in the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

(modern-day Indonesia). The coin had the nominal value of 1/8

stuiver The stuiver was a coin used in the Netherlands, worth of a guilder (16 ''penning'' or 8 '' duit'', later 5 cents). It was also minted on the Lower Rhine region and the Dutch colonies. The word can still refer to the 5 euro cent coin, which ...

Etymology

Etymologically, the word duit comes from

Middle Dutch Middle Dutch is a collective name for a number of closely related West Germanic dialects whose ancestor was Old Dutch. It was spoken and written between 1150 and 1500. Until the advent of Modern Dutch after 1500 or , there was no overarching sta ...

and means a type of small coin.

History

The

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( ; VOC ), commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered company, chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States Ge ...

(VOC) commissioned a special coin with a monogram

engraved Engraving is the practice of incising a design on a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an inta ...

on it in order to prevent

smuggling Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. More broadly, soc ...

. The coin was first minted during the 17th century in the

and was issued in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

until the year 1816, when it was replaced by cents and ½ cents. Later it became an internationalized currency and was also issued in the

Dutch Ceylon Dutch Ceylon (; ) was a governorate established in present-day Sri Lanka by the Dutch East India Company. Although the Dutch managed to capture most of the coastal areas in Sri Lanka, they were never able to control the Kingdom of Kandy locate ...

, and

Dutch Malabar Dutch Malabar ( Dutch: ''Nederlandse Malabar''; Malayalam: ''ഡച്ച് മലബാർ'') also known by the name of its main settlement Cochin, were a collection of settlements and trading factories of the Dutch East India Company on th ...

. Only these types of coins were valid for use in colonial-era

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

, where it was issued by the Dutch East India Company from the beginning till the end of the 18th century. The biggest destination for duit coins was

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

. The duit was also used in parts of the Americas while under Dutch rule, such as

New Amsterdam New Amsterdam (, ) was a 17th-century Dutch Empire, Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''Factory (trading post), fac ...

(present-day New York City) and

Suriname Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...

, and in Africa in the

Dutch Cape Colony The Cape of Good Hope () was a Dutch United East India Company (VOC) supplystation in Southern Africa, centered on the Cape of Good Hope, from where it derived its name. The original supply station and the successive states that the area was ...

. The coin's name was preserved in the Netherlands for a long time as ''vierduitstuk'' (or 'plak'), because it was worth 4 duiten = half a stuiver (or 2½ cents).

Nominal value

According to its usage in the Netherlands, 8 duiten are equivalent to a

and 160 duiten are equivalent to a

guilder Guilder is the English translation of the Dutch and German ''gulden'', originally shortened from Middle High German ''guldin pfenninc'' (" gold penny"). This was the term that became current in the southern and western parts of the Holy Rom ...

. When this value was applied in the Dutch East Indies colony in 1726, it was equivalent to a quarter of a stuiver (i.e. 4 duit = 1 stuiver).

Weight and composition

;Weight Various standards existed, with official weights of: * 4.24 grams from 1590 * 3.93 grams in later periods ;Composition Originally duit coins were minted in copper, but

proof coinage Proof coinage refers to special early samples of a coin issue, historically made for checking the die (manufacturing), dies (as in demonstrating that something is true) and for archival purposes. In modern times, proofs are often struck in grea ...

of the duit was also minted in

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

and

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

Dutch expressions

The

Dutch language Dutch ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language and is the List of languages by total number of speak ...

has many expressions,

proverb A proverb (from ) or an adage is a simple, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and are an example of formulaic speech, formulaic language. A proverbial phrase ...

s and sayings which feature the word ''duit'', including: * "Putting a doit in the bag" () – to contribute a little something * "He is a doit-thief." () – he is a miser. * "He has a lot of kaka, but not many doits." () – he is a braggart. * "To have courage like a three-doit haddock" () – to be cowardly * "To give someone four doits back" () – to tell someone the truth

Legacy

As the monetary unit was widespread throughout the Malay archipelago, the word ''duit'' eventually was absorbed into Malay vocabulary becoming a slang word for 'money' besides ''wang'' ( Malaysian spelling) and ''uang'' (

Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...

spelling). The Duit is also used in

Dutch India Dutch India () consisted of the settlements and trading posts of the Dutch East India Company on the Indian subcontinent. It is only used as a geographical definition, as there was never a political authority ruling all Dutch India. Instead, D ...

making ''Duttu'' ( துட்டு) a slang for low denomination money in Tamil. The duit is also referred to as the "New York penny" due to its use as a Colonial monetary unit in Dutch New Amsterdam (later New York) and for years later, long after Dutch rule had passed. The Duit circulated also in the

duchy of Cleves The Duchy of Cleves (; ) was a state of the Holy Roman Empire which emerged from the medieval . It was situated in the northern Rhineland on both sides of the Lower Rhine, around its capital Cleves and the towns of Wesel, Kalkar, Xanten, Emme ...

and

Guelders The Duchy of Guelders (; ; ) is a historical duchy, previously county, of the Holy Roman Empire, located in the Low Countries. Geography The duchy was named after the town of Geldern (''Gelder'') in present-day Germany. Though the present pr ...

, which may be the reason why in the 18th century the expression ''kein Deut'' entered the German language, meaning ''not a bit''.

Bibliography

References

External links

* {{Currency and coinage of the Netherlands Copper coins Coins of the Netherlands Guilder Dutch Republic Dutch East India Company Dutch Cape Colony Dutch Ceylon Dutch India Coins of the Dutch East Indies Dutch words and phrases Indonesian words and phrases Malay words and phrases Coins of Sri Lanka