Duit
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The duit (pronounced [ˈdœyt]) (plural: duiten; English: doit[1]) was an old low-value Dutch copper coin.[2] Struck in the 17th and 18th centuries[3] in the territory of the Dutch Republic, it became an international currency.[4][5] It had the value of 1/8 stuiver.[4]
Etymology
Etymologically, the word duit comes from Middle Dutch and means a type of small coin.[1]
History
The
The coin's name was preserved in the Netherlands for a long time as vierduitstuk (or 'plak'[6]), because it was worth 4 duiten = half a stuiver (or 2½ cents).[7]
Value
According to its usage in the Netherlands, 8 duiten are equivalent to a stuiver and 160 duiten are equivalent to a guilder. When this value was applied in the Dutch East Indies colony in 1726, it was equivalent to a quarter of a stuiver (i.e. 4 duit = 1 stuiver).[4]
Originally duit coins were minted in copper, but proof coinage of the duit was also minted in silver and gold.[8]
Dutch expressions
The Dutch language has many expressions, proverbs and sayings which feature the word duit, including:[2]
- "Putting a doit in the bag" (Een duit in het zakje doen) – to contribute a little something
- "He is a doit-thief." (Hij is een duitendief) – he is a miser.
- "He has a lot of kaka, but not many doits." (Hij heeft veel kak, maar weinig duiten) – he is a braggart.
- "To have courage like a three-doit haddock" (Moed hebben als een schelvis van drie duiten) – to be cowardly
- "To give someone four doits back" (Iemand van vier duiten weerom geven) – to tell someone the truth
Legacy
The single largest recipient of Dutch duit coins was
The duit is also referred to as the "New York penny" due to its use as a Colonial monetary unit in Dutch New Amsterdam (later New York) and for years later, long after Dutch rule had passed.
The Duit circulated also in the
Duit (Duttu) is a slang for low denomination money in Tamil.
Duit is also a slang for money in modern Indonesia.
Bibliography
- Shimada, Ryūto (2006). The Intra-Asian Trade in Japanese Copper by the Dutch East India Company During the Eighteenth Century. Leiden: ISBN 90-04-15092-7. Archivedfrom the original on 2024-02-08. Retrieved 2018-06-11.
References
- ^ a b "doit". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.) - "A small Dutch coin formerly in use, the eighth part of a stiver, or the half of an English farthing; hence (chiefly in negative phrases) as the type of a very small or trifling sum."
- ^ ISBN 90-6648-402-0.}
- ^
Hazlitt, William Carew (1897). Supplement to the Coinage of the European Continent. London: Swan Sonnenschein. p. 63. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
The earliest duit which we have seen is of 1614 ; and there is also a separate colonial series down at least to 1794.
- ^ a b c d e "Duit". Winkler Prins Encyclopaedie (in Dutch). Amsterdam/Brussels: Elsevier. 1947.
- ^ a b c d Shimada 2006, p. 94.
- ^ "plack". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ "Duit". De Kleine Winkler Prins. Encyclopedie van A tot Z (in Dutch). Amsterdam: Elsevier. 1949.
- ^ "Verouderd, antiek of achterhaald | Klantenservice | Ziggo". 3 January 2022. Archived from the original on 7 June 2011. Retrieved 6 May 2010.
- ^ "Duden – Deut – Rechtschreibung, Bedeutung, Definition, Herkunft". Duden.de (in German). Archived from the original on 2023-02-04. Retrieved 2018-07-22.
External links
- Media related to Duit at Wikimedia Commons