Beemster Vijfje 2019 BU-kwaliteit in coincard

Since 2012, a special commemorative coin has been issued each year in the context of the Dutch World Heritage. Since 2014, the Kingdom of the Netherlands has ten UNESCO World Heritage Sites, of which the Royal Dutch Mint has already cashed in seven on a commemorative coin. Now it’s time for the eighth issue: The Beemster Fiver!

The Beemster Vijfje tells the story of the historic polder in the province of Noord-Holland, where the Dutch drained large parts of the land and converted it into fertile agricultural land. This year, Droogmakerij de Beemster is celebrating its 20th anniversary as a UNESCO World Heritage Site!

The design of the packaging shows a cross-section of the landscape of De Beemster; with water that is blocked by a dike. Next to the dike is a mill, which was used to drain De Beemster in the seventeenth century. The section emphasizes that everyone in De Beemster lives below sea level. A unique experience, which symbolizes the draining of the Beemstermeer and the importance of our Dutch dikes. When the dikes break, there is a chance that your place of residence will also be submerged.

The German artist Katrin Korfmann, who lives in Amsterdam, is the designer of the Beemster Fiver. She also signed for the Schokland Vijfje, published in 2018. In the designs of both coins, she emphasizes the contrast between the free, organic form of the natural landscape and the sleek, constructed grid of the polder landscape. The obverse of the coin shows the profile of the King, looking to the right: abstract but recognizable. Portrait, landscape, icons, and letters are deeper relative to the landscape, just like the former Beemstermeer relative to the surrounding old country. At the Schokland Vijfje, this was exactly the other way around as a reference to the former island, which stood out above the Zuiderzee. Korfmann worked with Céline Hurka for typography