10 facts about coins and paper money

-1 What does the letter W under Juliana's portrait mean on the silver rijksdaalder?

The "W" under the portrait of Queen Juliana on a.o. the silver rijksdaalder refers to the name of the portrait's designer, Othmar J. Wiener. Wiener was an Austrian sculptor and medallist who worked in the Netherlands. He designed the portrait of Queen Juliana which was used on Dutch coins, including the silver rijksdaalder, from 1959 to 1980. The "W" under the portrait is a hallmark of his work and serves as a kind of signature.

-2 The Nine Test.

The sum of all digits of the serial number of the Dutch banknotes series (Hereditary) is always divisible by nine. Do the math! Note! This only applies to series of Erflaters bills.

-3 Euro bills:

Any euro bill features the signature of an ECB president. In the 20 years there have been four presidents: Willem Duisenberg, (1998-2003), Jean-Claude Trichet (2003-2011), Mario Draghi (2011-2019) and current president Christine Lagarde.

-4 God be with us:

The sides of many Dutch coins have featured the edge lettering "God zij met ons" since 1816. The text was by writer, politician, mathematician and physicist Jean Henri van Swinden (1746-1823). Today, the text appears only on our 2-euro coins, because it is too long for the other coins.

-5 The euro sign:
The official euro symbol "€" is based on the Greek letter epsilon ε, which symbolizes the cradle of European civilization. Also, the sign is equivalent to the letter E, the first letter of the word "Europe." The two parallel lines in the symbol also represent the stability of the euro. Interesting, right?

-6 The largest banknote:
The world's largest banknote is designed to celebrate independence and freedom. What exactly do we mean? Well, the world's largest banknote was created in 1998 by the Philippine government. It was made to celebrate a century of independence from Spanish rule. It measured a whopping 216 mm by 133 mm and was worth 100,000 pesos. For this banknote, you do need a very large wallet!

-7 How heavy is gold?
Did you know that gold is one of the heaviest metals? It is almost 20 times heavier than water.

-8 Most expensive coin:
A unique American-made gold coin has fetched nearly $18.8 million, or about 15.5 million euros, at auction in New York. That makes it the most expensive coin in history.

-9 Most expensive Dutch currency:
The most expensive Dutch currency was recently sold for about 1 million euros. And that for a quarter! The reason for this value is that only 2 copies of it were made. That made this coin the most expensive and trickiest coin in the Netherlands.

-10 The golden egg:
If a chicken could really lay golden eggs, it would weigh about 2.9 kg and be worth more than €200,000.