Museum objects
0 shown · 5 cited but not shown. An image only appears here if it is openly
licensed and confirmed to depict the object we claim. Otherwise we cite it and link you to
the museum — we would rather show you nothing than show you the wrong thing.
Gold Guilder of Willem V
Rijksmuseum · KOG-MP-1-1525C · 14th century
An early Dutch gold guilder coin from the reign of Count Willem V of Holland.
Before there were banks or exchanges, there was just this: a count deciding his gold coin would be the standard everyone in his territory trusted.
VOC Share Certificate
Westfries Archief · VOC aandeel 1606 · September 9, 1606
The oldest known share certificate in the world, issued by the Dutch East India Company.
This piece of paper is the actual birth certificate of the modern stock market — the moment ownership of a company first became something you could buy, sell, and trade like a coin.
Regents of the Old Men's Almshouse
Frans Hals Museum · WGA11182 · 1664
A Frans Hals group portrait of the civic regents who administered Dutch charitable and financial institutions.
These are the faces of the men who ran Amsterdam's money — stern, wealthy, and utterly certain the whole world was watching how they managed it.
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VOC coin category
Wikimedia Commons collection
image failed verification (wrong object) — cited, not shown
View it at the museum ↗
VOC Coinage
Wikimedia Commons collection · VOC coin category · 17th-18th century
Coins minted specifically for use by the Dutch East India Company across its Asian trading network.
Money made not for a country, but for a company — proof that by Lars's era, corporations had become powerful enough to need their own currency.
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Bank of Amsterdam records
Dutch National Archives
image failed verification (wrong object) — cited, not shown
View it at the museum ↗
Bank of Amsterdam Ledger Records
Dutch National Archives · Bank of Amsterdam records · 1609 onward
Surviving administrative ledgers from the Bank of Amsterdam, one of the world's first central banks.
Every entry in these ledgers is a tiny proof that trust, once written down carefully enough, can move more money than gold ever could.
Primary sources
The documents themselves. We link and quote — that is citation, and it needs no licence.
Oldest Share Certificate
record · 2010 · Guinness World Records · Guinness World Records
Official record confirming the VOC 1606 certificate as the world's oldest surviving share.
The official world record confirming this really is the oldest stock certificate ever found.
The Bank of Amsterdam and the Governance of Money
academic_publication · 2021 · De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) Working Paper 696 · De Nederlandsche Bank
Central bank research paper analyzing the monetary policy and governance of the historic Bank of Amsterdam.
A modern central bank's own research paper studying how its 400-year-old ancestor actually worked.
VOC Company Records Archive
archive · 1602-1799 · Dutch East India Company / National Archives · Nationaal Archief, The Hague
Corporate and financial records of the VOC, the world's first multinational corporation.
The actual surviving business records of the world's first major global corporation.
History of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange
academic_publication · Ongoing · Various economic historians · Amsterdam City Archives
Scholarly accounts of the founding of the Amsterdam Beurs, the first formal stock exchange.
Historical research on how Amsterdam built the world's first true stock exchange building.
Wikipedia: Dutch East India Company
encyclopedia_entry · Ongoing · Wikipedia contributors · Wikipedia
Overview reference on the VOC's founding, structure, and financial innovations.
A general overview of the company that basically invented the modern stock market.
Where this money travelled
Lars's guilder built the world's first stock exchange in Amsterdam, then followed Dutch trading ships to colonies and ports across four continents.
Amsterdam Beurs52.3702, 4.8952
Dordrecht51.8133, 4.6901
New Amsterdam (Manhattan)40.7128, -74.0060
Cape Town-33.9249, 18.4241
Dejima, Japan32.7503, 129.8663
Batavia (Jakarta)-6.2088, 106.8456
What we don't know
The page no competitor will build.
- 5 of 5 objects on this page are cited but not shown — either the rights are not cleared, or we could not verify that an available image really depicts the object. We would rather show you nothing than show you the wrong thing.
- 1 source(s) here are Wikipedia — a tertiary source. It is a pointer, not our evidence. These are being replaced with the primary documents Wikipedia itself cites.
