Gulden 'St. Jansgoudgulden' - William I

The St. Jansgoudgulden takes its name from its type's derivation from the Florentine gold florin, which itself bore the image of St. John the Baptist — the patron saint of Florence. Guelders, like many of the Rhine territories in the late fourteenth century, was effectively piggybacking on the commercial trust already built into the Florentine prototype. William I used this coinage to assert fiscal credibility during a period when the duchy was managing persistent pressure from both the Habsburgs and the Duchy of Brabant. The long emission window of over two decades suggests steady demand rather than a single political moment.