100 Centecu - Beatrix De Nederlanden

The "ECU" coinage issued by the Netherlands in the early 1990s occupied a peculiar space — neither legal tender in the conventional sense nor purely commemorative. The European Currency Unit itself was a basket currency, a weighted average of EEC member currencies, used primarily in interbank settlements and bond markets. The Dutch issued these pieces as collector items sold at a premium, exploiting public enthusiasm for European integration in the run-up to the Maastricht Treaty, signed in February 1992.