Gold Écu 'Klinckaert' - William VI

William VI ruled Holland from 1404 until his death in 1417, a period marked by the bitter factional civil war between the Hooks and the Cods — a conflict that had destabilized Holland intermittently since the mid-fourteenth century. His minting of gold écus followed Burgundian monetary fashion closely, reflecting the broader political gravitational pull the Burgundian dukes were already exerting over the Low Countries, decades before Holland formally passed to Philip the Good in 1428.

The "Klinckaert" designation derives from the Flemish term for the ringing sound struck gold produced — a colloquial quality test that became a named coin type in its own right.