According to this ordinance the gold _double florin_ was to be struck at a tale of 44-3/4 to the mark Troy, of a fineness of 23-7/8 carats, and issued at an equivalence of 80 gros. The remaining gold coins were to comprise the _St. Andries florin_ = 40 groschen (and its half); while the silver coins were to comprise-- Gros = 1 gros. Pattart = 2 " Double pattart = 4 " Grand double = 8 " In great part this is to be regarded as an ideal or unrealised system. The first effectual regulation of the silver coinage was made in the ordinance of Charles V. of 22nd February 1542. This ordinance prescribed the minting of the silver _carolus_, in imitation of the Dutch thaler. Weight to be 14 engels, 30 azen. Standard to be 10 pfennige (= .853 fine). Equivalence to be 20 stivers. The practical effect of this measure, therefore, was to introduce a coin equal to, and therefore representative of, the hitherto fictitious or merely ideal _gulden_. The remaining tariffs of the succeeding hundred years or so, together with the bimetallic experience of the Netherlands, have been already briefly described in the text (_supra_, pp. 71, 77). On the declaration of independence by the Northern Provinces, and the separation of the United Netherlands from the Southern or Spanish Netherlands, which succeeded, the monetary history of these two portions of the Low Countries bifurcates. We are here concerned only with that of the Northern or United or Dutch Provinces, as being of more commercial interest in European history of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. By Article 12 of the Union, each of the seven United Provinces was bound to conformity in the course or tariffing of its money, while left free to determine the species and mere numismatic detail of the coins. The various tariffs therefore, already described, contain the Mint law as applied to the United Provinces; but it was not until 1606 that a serious attempt at systematisation was made. By the great plakkaat of 21st March 1606, completed by that of 6th July 1610, a new and very full tariff was imposed; an important regulation was made, declaring all coins which lacked more than 1-1/2 engels over and above the remedy, to be taken as bullion and not current as coin, and the indenture details of the gold coins were fixed, as it proved, throughout the life of the Republic. The gold rijder and the gold ducat were prescribed as follows:-- GOLD RIJDER. Weight (gross), 207.2 azen (= 9.95 grs.). " (of fine gold), 187.77 azen (= 9.11 grs.). Standard, 22 carat (= .9167). (Equivalence = 10 fl. 2 st.). GOLD DUCAT. Weight (gross), 72-1/2 azen (= 3.494 grs.). " (of fine gold), 71.43 azen (=3.432 grs.). Standard = 23 carat 8 grs. (= .9826). (Equivalence = 3 fl. 16 st.).