The Case: The Girl Queen’s Coin — the Shortest Window in the Dutch Guilder Family

The Long Hair variety is the opening chapter of the most popular gold coin family the Netherlands ever produced. Struck from 1892 to 1897, it bears the portrait of Queen Wilhelmina as she actually was in those years — a girl who had inherited the Dutch throne at age ten, reigning under her mother’s regency while the mint placed her likeness, long hair falling loose across her shoulders, on the kingdom’s gold coinage.

As an investment, the Long Hair guilder carries the full credentials of its family. It contains the same 0.1947 troy ounces of gold as the mature-portrait Wilhelmina and King Willem III issues, trades at per ounce acquisition costs comparable to modern fractional bullion coins, and tracks directly with the spot price of gold over time — while carrying the historic (pre-1933) designation and the associated insulation against the possibility of future government intervention. Its production window is also the narrowest in the Dutch family — and in practice narrower still: the 1892 and 1895 strikings were commemorative-scale issues of just 61 and 149 pieces, leaving the 1897 date as the coin the market actually trades. At roughly one-fifth of a troy ounce, the coin offers divisible negotiability: affording its owner the flexibility to liquidate positions incrementally, in amounts proportionate to the specific needs of the moment and across a variety of circumstances. For investors whose priorities are the recognizability and everyday liquidity of the Dutch guilder family, joined to the notable scarcity of what is, practically speaking, a single-year issue—1897, and then never again—the Long Hair guilder is the most distinctive variety in one of Europe’s most liquid gold coin families.

Design & Specifications

The obverse presents the young Wilhelmina facing left, her long hair flowing loose past her shoulders — a portrait unique in European gold coinage, which otherwise recorded its monarchs in maturity or old age. The legend reads KONINGIN WILHELMINA with the motto GOD ZIJ MET ONS (“God be with us”) above. The reverse carries the crowned Dutch coat of arms — the rampant lion of the House of Nassau — flanked by the denomination 10 G, with KONINGRIJK DER NEDERLANDEN encircling and the date below.

At 22.5mm in diameter and 6.72 grams total weight, the coin contains 0.1947 troy ounces of pure gold in a .900 fine alloy — identical to the other members of the Dutch 10 Guilder family, and slightly more gold content than the Swiss 20 Franc Helvetia (0.1866 oz) or the French 20 Franc (0.1867 oz). Grade range: BU/UNC. Struck 1892–1897; readily available examples are dated 1897.

Queen Wilhelmina: The Portrait Before the Legend

The full story of Wilhelmina — the incisive young queen who answered Kaiser Wilhelm II’s boast about his seven-foot guards with “when we open our dikes, the water is ten feet deep,” the first female billionaire in recorded history, the voice of Dutch resistance from London during the Second World War — is told on our companion page for the mature-portrait Wilhelmina 10 Guilder. The Long Hair coins are where that story begins.

Wilhelmina ascended the throne in 1890 at age ten upon the death of her father, King Willem III, after the Dutch parliament passed special legislation permitting a woman to reign. Her mother, Queen Emma, served as regent until Wilhelmina reached eighteen in 1898. The Long Hair guilders were struck entirely within those regency years — the coins of a monarch who was still a schoolgirl, issued by a kingdom that had placed its full constitutional confidence in her. She would justify that confidence across a fifty-eight-year reign, one of the longest of any European monarch of the modern era. Every Long Hair guilder is an artifact of its beginning.

Scarcity: The Narrowest Window in the Dutch Gold Family

The scarcity argument is comparative and structural. The mature-portrait Wilhelmina series was struck across nine dates spanning more than two decades, with total production of approximately 21.2 million pieces — itself modest against British sovereign output, which exceeded 30 million coins in single peak years. The Long Hair variety was struck for just six years, 1892 through 1897, at the very start of the family — and then the portrait was retired forever as the queen grew up. In practice the type is even narrower than its dates suggest: the 1892 and 1895 issues were commemorative strikings of 61 and 149 pieces, which leaves the 1897 mintage of 453,696 as, for all practical purposes, a one-year supply for the entire variety. Within one of the most recognized and liquid gold coin families in Europe, the Long Hair issues represent the shortest-lived and earliest type, and the market typically prices them within reach of their far more plentiful successors.

International Recognizability and Liquidity

The Dutch 10 Guilder family — King Willem III, Wilhelmina Long Hair, and Wilhelmina mature portrait — stands alongside the Swiss 20 Franc Helvetia and the British sovereign among the most immediately recognized fractional gold instruments in the international market. Dealers across North America and Europe identify the type on sight, its gold content is standardized and well-documented, and its trading history is deep in both markets. Each variety carries the same gold content and the same liquidity profile; the Long Hair adds the distinction of the family’s founding portrait without surrendering any of its convertibility. For investors who prioritize the ability to convert a holding to cash quickly, the guilder performs that function reliably wherever gold trades.

The Pre-1933 Advantage: Legal Distinction and Portfolio Differentiation

In 1933, FDR issued Executive Order 6102, requiring Americans to surrender their gold coin and bullion to the Treasury — but the order and the regulations that followed it exempted gold coins of recognized special value to collectors of rare and unusual coins. Subsequent clarifications by the Treasury identified pre-1933 gold coins — a classification that includes the Wilhelmina Long Hair guilder, struck between 1892 and 1897 — as falling within that collector classification as historical items.

Under current constitutional law, a government intervention in the gold market would be executed through the power of eminent domain — the government’s right to take private property for public use provided it pays the owner just compensation. Historic coins complicate the government’s ability to broadly establish “just compensation” or “fair value,” which was precisely the reasoning behind the original “recognized special value” exemption in 1933. That complexity, and the precedent surrounding pre-1933 gold coins, creates a notable impediment to the government’s ability to restrict them broadly — particularly compared to modern bullion, which can be valued easily and consistently at a single price. In essence, it is a bureaucratic question of whether the government would undertake the enormous task of valuing the diversity and complexity of the historic-coin genre — every coin, every date, every condition, every personal holding — and that difficulty is what insulates the owner’s legal liquidity rights in the event of capital controls.

Whether a future government intervention in private gold markets is a risk an investor assigns significant weight to is a personal judgment. The factual point is narrower: the pre-1933 status represents a layer of portfolio differentiation that this coin carries at minimal added per-ounce cost over comparable modern bullion, along with a measure of insulation for the legal liquidity rights of its owner.

For a more in-depth study, we invite you to read our comprehensive memorandum on this subject: Preparing for a Potential Gold Confiscation

Final Thought

The Netherlands 10 Guilder Long Hair is the founding portrait of one of Europe’s most liquid gold coin families — the coin of a ten-year-old queen who would become one of the most formidable monarchs of the twentieth century, struck, practically speaking, in a single year — 1897 — and never again. It carries the same gold content and the same on-sight recognizability as its mature-portrait successor, in a variety with the narrowest production window of the entire Dutch series. No other fractional European gold coin pairs this degree of historical distinction with the everyday liquidity of the Dutch guilder family.

Mintage by Date

Mintage figures per the Standard Catalog of World Coins (via NGC World Price Guide). The 1892 and 1895 figures are confirmed correct: those dates were commemorative-scale strikings of 61 and 149 pieces. The readily available trade supply is the 1897 issue of 453,696 pieces — practically speaking, a one-year mintage for the entire variety.