Overlijden van Koning Willem III 1890 1890

This commemorative coin was made by C.J. Begeer in 1890 to mark the death of King Willem III. It’s made of struck bronze, a material traditionally associated with memorialization, but here produced on a scale that suggests mass distribution. Consider the production of this coin, which has the head of Willem III on one side, and dates of his birth and death on the reverse. A die would have been engraved with these images, then used to impress the design onto the metal. This process, although technically quite sophisticated, depends on the repetitive work of a machine. Struck coinage is the perfect symbol of the industrial era. We often think of coins as having an inherent value, but that's really based on an act of collective agreement. In this case, the value is symbolic. This object gives us insight into how the memory of a monarch was manufactured for public consumption. It highlights the convergence of craft, design, and materiality, in understanding its cultural significance beyond traditional art historical interpretations.