45. When did the Netherlands leave the gold standard?
The Netherlands left the gold standard in the night of Saturday 26 to Sunday 27 September 1936. The government imposed an export ban on gold and therefore felt compelled to abandon the link between the guilder and gold. The Netherlands has long adhered to the gold standard, while several other European countries had abandoned it years earlier. According to some economists, the Dutch economy has suffered greatly from the retention of the gold peg, because our currency was relatively expensive and our export position was unfavourable.
The impetus for the decoupling of the guilder from gold was given by France, which decided to devalue the currency on Friday 25 September. France was one of the main pillars of the bloc of countries that still held on to the gold standard, but the devaluation had made the situation untenable. A day later, Switzerland had also abandoned the peg of the currency to gold.
The golden tenner symbolizes the era of the gold standard. These coins were minted until 1933 and are still highly sought after to this day for the intrinsic value of just over 6 grams of gold.
The golden tenner is a remnant of the gold standard
