Duit

The duit (plural: duiten; English: doit[1]) was a copper Dutch coin worth 2 penning, with 8 duit pieces equal to one stuiver and 160 duit pieces equal to one gulden. In Dutch Indonesia 4 duit pieces were equal to one stuiver. To prevent smuggling, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) ordered special coins with the company monogram embossed upon them. Only those pieces were valid in Indonesia. The duit was once used in the Americas in areas under Dutch rule.

Not to be confused with the Duit language, nor with "Duits", the Dutch word for "German".
Obverse and Reverse of a duit of the Dutch East India Company
Look up duit in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

The name of the coin was preserved for a long time in the 'fourduitcoin' (or 'plak'[2]), because it was worth 4 duiten = half a stuiver (or 2.5 cents).

The Dutch language has many expressions, proverbs and sayings which feature the word 'duit'.

  • "Putting a duit in the bag" (Een duit in het zakje doen) – to contribute something
  • "He is a duit-thief" (Hij is een duitendief) – he is very greedy
  • "He has much shit, but little duit" (Hij heeft veel kak, maar weinig duiten) – he is a boaster
  • "To be courageous like a three-duit haddock" (Moed hebben als een schelvis van drie duiten) – to be cowardly
  • "To give someone of four duit back" (Iemand van vier duiten weerom geven) – to tell someone the truth

Influence

The single largest recipient of Dutch duit coins was Java. Ceylon and Malabar did also circulate the coins.[3] As the monetary unit was widespread throughout the Malay archipelago, the word duit eventually was absorbed into Malay vocabulary becoming a slang word for 'money' besides wang (Malaysian spelling) and uang (Indonesian spelling).

The duit is also referred to as the "New York penny" due to its use as a Colonial monetary unit in Dutch New Amsterdam (later New York) and for years later, long after Dutch rule had passed. It was part of the coinage used to purchase the island of Manhattan from the locals.

The Duit circulated also in the duchy of Cleves and Guelders, which may be the reason why in the 18th century the expression kein Deut entered the German language, meaning not a bit.[4]

Duit (Duttu) is a slang for low denomination money in Tamil.

Non-copper duit

In addition to copper, proof coinage of the duit was also minted in silver and gold.[5]

References
  1. "doit". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.) - "A small Dutch coin formerly in use, the eighth part of a stiver, or the half of an English farthing; hence (chiefly in negative phrases) as the type of a very small or trifling sum."
  2. "plack". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  3. Ryūto Shimada (2006). The Intra-Asian Trade in Japanese Copper by the Dutch East India Company During the Eighteenth Century. BRILL. p. 94. ISBN 90-04-15092-7.
  4. "Duden – Deut – Rechtschreibung, Bedeutung, Definition, Herkunft". Duden.de (in German). Retrieved 2018-07-22.
  5. "Verouderd, antiek of achterhaald | Klantenservice | Ziggo". 3 January 2022.
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