Deventer's civic coinage operated under a perpetual tension with the States of Overijssel, which repeatedly attempted to standardize currency across the province. The Rijderschelling — named for the mounted knight type inherited from much earlier provincial coinage — continued to be struck by the city in its own name well into the period when such independent municipal issues were becoming politically awkward. Deventer, Kampen, and Zwolle jealously guarded their minting privileges as one of the few remaining assertions of civic autonomy against provincial consolidation.
The .583 fineness placed these squarely below the fineness of contemporary Rijksdaalders, which bred chronic complaints from merchants about token-grade silver flooding local markets.
Deventer's civic coinage operated under a perpetual tension with the States of Overijssel, which repeatedly attempted to standardize currency across the province. The Rijderschelling — named for the mounted knight type inherited from much earlier provincial coinage — continued to be struck by the city in its own name well into the period when such independent municipal issues were becoming politically awkward. Deventer, Kampen, and Zwolle jealously guarded their minting privileges as one of the few remaining assertions of civic autonomy against provincial consolidation.
The .583 fineness placed these squarely below the fineness of contemporary Rijksdaalders, which bred chronic complaints from merchants about token-grade silver flooding local markets.