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| | Early Coins in use at the Cape. South Africa (Site not responding. Last check: ) |
 | | In 1602 the United Dutch East India Company, or the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, commonly known as the V.O.C., was founded in Holland with headquarters at Amsterdam, the purpose of the company being to develop trade with India. |
 | | By 1681, however, coins of the values of 3, 2, 1 and 1/2 gulden were being minted by the United Provinces of Holland, thus becoming the basic coinage of a truly national currency and, in the natural course of events, these pieces also reached the Cape. |
 | | Thus the successive appearance of the Spanish real, Dutch gulden, paper Rixdaler, English penny pieces, and finally of English silver, bears testimony to the dominance of Spain in Europe, the rise of the Dutch East Indian trade, the development of the Cape's own economy, and finally the emergence of British rule in Southern Africa. |
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