History of Gold in the Netherlands

De Nederlandsche Bank was founded in 1814 and later became the Dutch central bank.

After Germany dumped silver in the early 1870s and its price fell, the Netherlands stopped free silver coinage and introduced a gold 10-guilder coin. Silver coins stayed legal tender in a 'limping' gold standard.

The Dutch gold standard lasted until the outbreak of the First World War.

Built up mainly in the 1950s and 1960s, Dutch gold reserves peaked at about 1,704 tonnes in 1978.

When the European Monetary System began, 20% of Dutch gold was transferred to the European Monetary Cooperation Fund, leaving about 1,367 tonnes.

DNB sold 400 tonnes of gold in autumn 1992 without announcing it in advance, followed by another 300 tonnes in 1996.

Under the central bank gold agreements, DNB sold 235 tonnes in 1999-2004 and 165 tonnes in 2005-2009, bringing total sales since 1992 to 1,100 tonnes and holdings to 612.5 tonnes.

21 November 2014. DNB announced that it had moved 122.5 tonnes from New York to Amsterdam to spread its reserves more evenly. The share held in the Netherlands rose from 11% to 31%.

6 October 2016. DNB announced plans to move its Amsterdam gold, about 189 tonnes, to a new Cash Centre at Camp New Amsterdam near Zeist, then planned for early 2022, because guarding it in the city centre was difficult.

15 November 1586. After Antwerp fell in 1585, diamond workers moved north. A marriage record of 15 November 1586 lists Willem Vermaet as a 'diamond worker', the earliest proof of Amsterdam as a diamond city.

After diamonds were found in Brazil, the Dutch won the sales monopoly in 1735, and Amsterdam overtook Antwerp as the leading place to polish and trade diamonds.

17 July 1852. Two Amsterdam cutters from Coster began re-cutting the 186-carat Koh-i-Noor at Garrard in London.

The Asscher firm in Amsterdam was commissioned to cleave and polish the 3,106-carat Cullinan diamond, producing 9 large and 96 small stones, including the 530.20-carat Cullinan I.

During the German occupation of 1940-1945 most of Amsterdam's Jewish population was deported, including about 2,800 diamond workers, of whom only about 300 survived.

By around 1960 Amsterdam had become mainly a centre for diamond trading and sales to visitors, after Van Moppes began selling to tourists in 1955.