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1609

Bank of Amsterdam

The Wisselbank takes mixed coin and credits a bank guilder merchants can transfer.

Seventeenth-century painting of Amsterdam’s old town hall on Dam Square.
Pieter Saenredam, old Amsterdam town hall on the Dam — home of the Wisselbank (Bank of Amsterdam).Public domain (artist died 1665).

In 1609 Amsterdam opened a public deposit bank. Mixed street coin went in. A standard bank guilder came out, transferable on the city’s books. That bank money often traded at a premium, the agio, over worn coin.

The reputation was that a bank florin was a claim on metal. Concealed lending later broke that reputation. 1609 is the opening, not the later breach.

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