100 ECU - Beatrix Netherlands-Russia

The ECU — European Currency Unit — was a basket currency used for accounting within the European Monetary System from 1979, never legal tender in the conventional sense but issued as commemorative gold and silver pieces by several EU member states throughout the 1980s and 1990s. The Netherlands was among the more prolific participants, issuing ECU-denominated pieces that skirted the line between collector items and quasi-official coinage. By 1997, the ECU had less than two years left before being superseded by the euro, making late issues like this one short-horizon commemoratives almost by definition.

The Netherlands-Russia pairing likely commemorates the diplomatic and cultural ties stretching back to Peter the Great's time in Zaandam and Amsterdam in 1697 — exactly three centuries prior.