Stuiver `Pijlstuiver / Bezemstuiver`

Holland's stuiver coinage of this period falls squarely within the monetary turbulence of the Eighty Years' War, when the Dutch Republic was simultaneously fighting Spain and constructing a commercial empire. Provincial mints operated with considerable independence, and Holland's output during these years fed both domestic trade and the voracious liquidity demands of the VOC, chartered in 1602 and perpetually hungry for small silver to move through Asian markets.

The "pijl" and "bezem" nicknames — arrow and broom — derive from mintmaster's marks used to distinguish successive production runs, a practice that created the sub-varieties now catalogued under Ver#56.3.