1 Duit

Zwolle held the right to strike its own copper coinage as a member of the Hanseatic League and later as one of the Overijssel cities within the Dutch Republic — a municipal minting privilege that survived well into the seventeenth century despite repeated pressure from the States-General to consolidate coinage authority. The duit was the workhorse of small retail commerce, used daily for bread, beer, and ferry tolls.

1618 sits at the edge of a turbulent decade: the Twelve Years' Truce with Spain expired in 1621, and municipal finances across the Dutch Republic were already being strained by preparations for renewed war.