The colonisation of the Americas and the discovery of its rich ores had a great impact on the world economies, making them quickly become the main suppliers of precious metals in Europe. The compositional studies of several coins (ducatons, eight reales cob8, four reales cob4, eight reales pillar dollar, four reales half pillar dollars, rijderschellings and silver rijders) recovered from the 18th-century Dutch East India Company