1 Ducat Middle type, Bronze/Copper

Utrecht's "Middle type" ducaton series in base metal occupies an odd corner of Dutch provincial coinage — these were not intended as circulating currency in the conventional sense but served as currency substitutes and trade facilitators during periods when silver supplies were diverted to satisfy VOC shipping demands. The Province of Utrecht, always the smaller player among the Seven Provinces, issued these copper pieces across the late 1720s partly to address localized small-transaction shortfalls that silver coinage couldn't economically fill.

HPM Ut 25.1 distinguishes this from the earlier and later Utrecht ducat types by specific obverse die characteristics documented by Heinse, Purmer, and Van der Meer.