11/2 Ducats Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle and 100th Anniversary of Dutch Independence

Aachen held unique symbolic weight for this issue: the city was not only the site of the 1748 peace congress ending the War of Austrian Succession, but had served as the coronation seat of Holy Roman Emperors since Charlemagne. Striking a commemorative here, in gold, was a deliberate political statement by a city asserting its continued relevance within an increasingly marginalized imperial free city system.

The "100th Anniversary of Dutch Independence" component references the Peace of Westphalia (1648), making this a dual commemoration — Aachen honoring both a recent treaty concluded on its own soil and a century-old settlement that reshaped the whole of European sovereignty.