1 Ducaton `Silver Rider` Gold pattern at 18 ducats weight

1672 is the Rampjaar — the Disaster Year — when France, England, Münster, and Cologne simultaneously invaded the Dutch Republic, overrunning most of Holland within weeks. That the Province of Holland was striking gold patterns at 18-ducat weight while its territory was collapsing around it speaks to the stubborn institutional continuity of Dutch provincial minting, not to any misplaced optimism.

Pattern issues of this type were almost certainly produced for presentation purposes — gifts to foreign dignitaries or samples submitted for official approval — rather than for any intended circulation. The Delmonte reference places this among the rarest of Dutch gold pattern coinage, with surviving examples numbering in the single digits.