Ducat Early type 1

Gelderland's early ducats were struck under the authority of the newly independent Dutch Republic, whose member provinces each retained the right to mint gold — a deliberate decentralization that produced considerable variation across issues. The province had been among the most contested territories during the Eighty Years' War, and continuity of coinage was itself a political statement during decades when Spanish forces periodically controlled the region's towns and mints.

The fifty-year span of this type reflects how slowly the Republic standardized its gold coinage. Delmonte records meaningful die variation across this period.