50 Gulden - Beatrix Treaty of Munster

The 1648 Peace of Westphalia — of which the Treaty of Münster was one component, signed between Spain and the Dutch Republic — effectively ended eighty years of Dutch struggle against Spanish rule. The Dutch negotiated from a position of genuine strength; by 1648 the Republic's commercial and naval power had long outpaced Spain's capacity to suppress it. Commemorating the 350th anniversary of that signing, this issue marks a settlement that gave the Netherlands its first formal recognition of independence by a major Catholic power.