Under the distinguished patronage of Alderman Geordin Hill-Lewis, Mayor of the City of Cape Town
The Doit of the VOC (Dutch East India Company)
Pierre H. Nortje (January 2025)
Introduction
According to the World History Encyclopedia, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) was formed in 1602 by the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. The company was granted a charter with rights to trade exclusively in Asia and to buy valuable spices that were in high demand in Europe to flavour food dishes and for use in medicines.
By the mid-1600s, the Dutch East India Company had approximately 50 000 employees Between 1602 and 1799, when the company was dissolved, its ships made thousands of voyages from the Netherlands to the East Indies and carried over one million people to Asia.
Although the VOC’s primary purpose was trade, it became a colonial power in 17th-century Asia with the right to make treaties, build fortifications, and conduct military operations. The company brought an end to the Portuguese monopoly over the spice trade, and at its height, the company’s stock was worth 78 million Dutch guilders (approximately US$7.9 trillion).
In 1652 Jan van Riebeeck was requested by the company to undertake the command of the initial Dutch settlement at the Cape of Good Hope as a provisioning station for passing ships.
Jan van Riebeeck arrives in Table Bay in April 1652.
Source: South Africa History Online.
The History of the Doit
According to the Winkler Prins Encyclopaedie (1947), the coin (called a Duit in Dutch) was first minted during the 17th century in the Dutch Republic and was issued until the year 1816 when it was replaced by cents and ½ cents. The VOC commissioned their own issues depicting the VOC monogram in order to prevent smuggling. The reason for this was that in the Netherlands, a doit was equal to 1/8th of a stuiver, whilst in the East it was worth ¼ of a stuiver.
Although the VOC version primarily circulated in the East, it was also used in parts of the Americas while under Dutch rule, such as New Amsterdam (present-day New York City) and in Africa in the Dutch Cape Colony.
Originally doits were minted in copper, but proof coinage of the doit was also minted in silver and gold as patterns and presentation pieces.
Picture left: Silver half doit of Gelderland dated 1757. Picture right: Gold doit of Holland dated 1726. Source: Heritage Auctions.
The following picture shows a “normal” copper doit (not a VOC issue) struck for the province of Gelderland in 1786.
Source: MS Shops
The Different VOC Issues
As we will see, VOC doits were struck between 1726 and 1794 for use by the company, but after it went bankrupt in 1799, doits were still struck depicting the VOC monogram until the early 1840s (of which some retained the frozen date 1790).
In the following section, we will discuss the doits and half doits struck during the period that the VOC was still in operation (please note coins were not necessarily struck in each year between the first and last years indicated below): -
What makes this series very interesting, is that because the coins were struck over so many years at different mints, various mint masters were involved in their manufacturing with each mintmaster using his own mark.
Let us take Wes Friesland as an example: -
(Our readers are encouraged to research the marks of other Dutch provincial mintmasters of the period).
Doits (depicting the VOC monogram) struck after the VOC was abolished in 1799.
According to Wikipedia: - “After the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, the VOC's financial issues worsened considerably. After vain attempts at reorganisation, the board of directors in the VOC were sacked in 1796 and the company's management was handed over to a Committee for Affairs relating to East India Trade and Possessions. The VOC charter was renewed several times but was allowed to expire on 31 December 1799. Most of the possessions of the former VOC were subsequently occupied by Great Britain during the Napoleonic wars, but after the new United Kingdom of the Netherlands was created by the Congress of Vienna, some of these were restored to this successor state of the Dutch Republic by the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814.”
Even before the VOC was dissolved in 1799, doits showing the VOC monogram were struck as an emergency issue in tin for Java in 1796 & 1797. These coins are scarce and are seldom offered for sale in South Africa.
Source: Numista
During the 1800s, the following doits were struck showing the VOC monogram (Source: Officiële Muntcatalogus Nederlands Indië. Uitgeverij Zonnebloem BV, Amsterdam, 1980): -
Batavian Republic 1799-1806
Doits were struck showing the provincial crest of arms for Holland (1802, 1803 & 1804) and Gelderland (1802, 1803, 1804, 1805 & 1806).
From 1802 to 1806 half doits and doits were also struck without the VOC monogram and with the words “INDIAE BATAV”. The 1802 issues are considered to be part of the Scheepjesgulden series struck in silver and copper for use at the Cape of Good Hope. In an earlier article published on the Western Cape Numismatic Society website, we discussed this series in more detail.
Source: Western Cape Numismatic Society
For reference, the doit, the higher of the two copper denominations, is depicted on the left, and the 1/16 gulden, the lowest of the five silver denominations, is shown on the right. Although both are marked '1/16,' causing potential confusion, a closer look reveals the figure '5' positioned to the left of the lion on the doit. This signifies that 5 of these doits are equivalent to a 1/16th gulden.
The Netherlands under French Domination (1806-1813)
Doits showing the VOC monogram were struck in 1807, 1808, 1809 & 1810 at the mint at Surabaya in Eastern Java (Indonesia) by Mint Master J.A. Zwekkert. He used both “old” dies with the VOC monogram (picture below left) and “new” dies showing the monogram of King Louis Napoleon of France (picture below right).
British Interim Government (1811-1816)
The doits struck during this period showed the monogram of the British East India Company. They were also struck by Mint Master J.A. Zwekkert. Tin issues were struck at Batavia in 1813 and 1814.
King Willem I of the Netherlands (1813-1840)
During this period, doits were struck at Utrecht showing the monogram of the VOC. The coins were struck from 1827 onwards but with the frozen date 1790. According to Numista, the differences between the two issues are the following: -
The original issue struck in 1790 has a mintmark showing a shield between two dots.
Later issues show one of the following mintmarks.
KM#111.2 (mintmark: child in swaddling clothes); struck in 1827, 1834, 1835.
KM#111.3 (mintmark: star between dots); struck in 1827, 1834, 1835.
KM#111.4 (mintmark: star); struck in 1840-1843.
KM#111.5 (mintmark: star above [over] child); struck in 1840-1843.
The pictures below, show the four varieties above, from left to right.
King Willem II of the Netherlands (1840-1849)
Between 1840 and 1843, half doits, doits and double doits were struck. All three issues carry the VOC monogram, date (1790) star mintmark (*) and the city arms of Utrecht. According to the Standard Catalogue of World Coins by Krause & Mishler (1985:1021) the half doit was struck in 1842 and is a very rare coin. The double doit is unique as it’s the only coin of this denomination showing the VOC monogram. No other VOC double doits were struck.
The Circulation of Doits at the Cape of Good Hope
In this last section of the paper, we will look at the issue of the doit as a circulating medium at the Cape.
In his book Money in South Africa, C.L. Engelbrecht (1987:17) writes that the coins of the Dutch East India Company tended to circulate at a higher value than the Dutch coins, and in order to eliminate this value loss, the exportation of Dutch coins was stopped in 1785, and only VOC coins were allowed locally. We know that hard specie was an acute problem at the Cape and were hoarded by locals rather than circulated. After war broke out between England and France in 1781, the Cape, as an ally of the Netherlands supporting the French, virtually ran out of hard currency. This shortage led to the issuance of paper notes the following year in order to prevent a currency shortage crisis.
Engelbrecht says that the VOC’s copper doits were known at the Cape, but were probably not much used.
In her publication A History of Currency in South Africa, E.M Shaw (1956:5) writes …
“It is difficult to establish the extent to which doits circulated at the Cape. In 1785 and 1789 it was specifically stated that they did not circulate, and again in 1802 their introduction here was suggested, but in the latter instance, it was on the grounds that they had reached the Cape from the Indies in small numbers so that although they would not be popular they were at least known and been accepted by local settlers. That they came to the country would in any case have been certain from the numbers that have been found in gardens and excavations in many parts of the Cape”.
The word “duit” is also found in old publications relating to the Cape: -
In his Beschryvinge van Kaap der Goede Hoope, met de zaaken daar toe behoorende by François Valentyn, published in 1726, he writes …
“De prys van't schaapen-vleesch, dat hier zeer schoon en vet valt, is niet altyd even eens. In Husings tyd, 1705 koste een pond 20, doch in't jaar 1714 maar 13 duiten”.
(The price of mutton … was 20 (doits) a pound in 1705, but in 1714 it costs only 13 doits).
Source: Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren.
In the Afrikaans language, words like “duit” and “stuiver” live on in South Africa in idioms like “ʼn Stuiwer in die armbeurs gooi” (In English one would say “Give your two cents worth”) and “Nie ‘n dooie duit” which would translate to English as “Not a copper farthing” (i.e. I wouldn’t pay anything for this old table – not a copper farthing).
The author clearly remembers that when he was in school in the 1970s, a friend of his showed him a handful of old doits. When he asked where he got them, the friend replied that they were found under an old oak tree in Paarl (a town in the Western Cape founded by Dutch settlers in 1687). In the early 2000s, the author was metal detecting with friends near Sea Point, Cape Town, and found a doit on the beach near the old lighthouse at Mouille Point. A doit of Zeeland dated 1684, was also found by another detectorist, Tjaart Theron from Caledon.
However, as both Engelbrecht and Shaw noted, although doits were known and accepted by local settlers, they were never popular and probably only saw limited local circulation.
In general, VOC doits are not that scarce and expensive (with exceptions) and offer a wide and interesting collecting field for South African hobbyists. They are obviously also collected internationally, and in great demand even in America, where the VOC issues are called New York Pennies. (As a matter of interest, Manhattan was discovered in 1609 on the 11th of September by Henry Hudson, commander of the VOC ship, the Half Moon).