2 1/2 Gulden - Juliana

The 2½ gulden — the "rijksdaalder" in everyday Dutch usage — was the workhorse of postwar Netherlands coinage, and the transition to nickel in 1969 came directly from the global silver squeeze of the late 1960s that forced most Western mints to abandon silver in circulation. The Netherlands had held on longer than most, making this issue the first debased version of a denomination that had carried silver since the seventeenth century.

Juliana's reign saw a marked increase in republican sentiment in the Netherlands, and her effigy on coinage attracted periodic political controversy — particularly following the scandals of the mid-1970s involving Prince Bernhard.