In a document dating to 1785, Marcellus Emants, the assayer-general of the Dutch Republic, reports a payment made to the painter Aert Schouman (1710-1792), then headmaster of the Dordrecht Guild of St. Luke, “for repairing a chimney piece which hangs in the muntkamer, depicting all activities related to the making of coins.” Emants's statement may describe a painting, now known as the Allegory of Coinage, which the Royal Mint in Utrecht gave to the Rijksmuseum in 1884 (fig. 2.1). Tentatively attributed to Romeyn de Hooghe (1645-1708), this large painting situates an abstruse allegory within a synoptic view of mining, refining, and minting precious metal. Although little is known about the production context of this painting, Emants's remarks suggest that Allegory of Coinage was made for the Councillors and Masters-General of the Mints of the Dutch Republic (Raden en Generaalmeesters van de Munten der Vereenigde Nederlanden) and that it hung above the fireplace in their offices, the muntkamer, in The Hague, close to other key governmental bodies of the Dutch Republic. (To distinguish between the room and the governmental body who used it, we henceforth use ‘mint council’ to designate the officials and ‘muntkamer’ for their headquarters.)

Allegory of Coinage presents a visual discourse on Dutch monetary governance. It portrays the Maiden of Holland as Moneta, the goddess of money. Signifying the mint council's oversight, this figure presides over various tributaries, who signify the global flow of bullion.