1 Rijksdaalder Piedfort at double weight

Piedforts were never intended for trade. The Province of Zeeland struck these double-weight presentation pieces as gifts for diplomats, civic officials, and foreign dignitaries — proof of technical competence as much as political courtesy. The Dutch Republic used such objects deliberately during a period when its provincial mints competed fiercely for prestige and contract work.

Zeeland's mint at Middelburg had a particularly assertive record of striking unauthorized or overweight issues throughout the seventeenth century, drawing repeated censure from the Generaliteit. That the piedfort run extended nearly fifty years across this reference span suggests production was neither continuous nor systematic.