battle axe that St. Ladislaus carried on the Hungarian prototype, but naming him with a different legend. Like the original, but not contemporary, Hungarian ducats, the reverse had a shield, which now showed the coat of arms of the issuing province These types evolved into a standing knight holding a sword and seven arrows representing the seven provinces in the union. The legend, CONCORDIA RES PARVÆ CRESCUNT, shortened in a variation of ways, says "by concord small things increase". It also names—or shows a symbol representing—the province that issued the coin. The reverse had a tablet inscribed and always shortened in the same way: MOneta ORDInum PROVINciarum FOEDERatorum BELGicarum AD LEGem IMPerii, gold money of the federated provinces of Belgium in accordance with the law of the realm. In the Napoleonic period, the Batavian Republic and Louis Bonaparte continued to strike ducats with these designs. These coins were not issued during the annexation of the Netherlands into the French Empire. Since Napoleon’s defeat, the Kingdom of the Netherlands has continued to issue them as trade and bullion coins. The text in the table on the reverse now says MOneta AURea REGni BELGII AD LEGEM IMPERII. Silver ducaton The silver ducaton commenced in the Italian states in the mid-16th century as a large coin of approximately 30 grams fine silver, worth slightly less than the gold ducat or sequin. Similarly-named coins were also minted in the Low Countries in the 17th and 18th centuries, which became popular negotiepenningen (trade coins) along with gold ducats: the Spanish Netherlands ducaton in 1618 of 30.7 g fine silver, the Dutch Republic's silver rider ducaton in 1659 of 30.45 g fine silver, and (confusingly) the Dutch Republic's smaller zilveren dukaat (silver ducat) in 1659 of 24.36 g fine silver. Decline Use of the ducat waned from the 17th century with the minting of freshly-mined Latin American gold to Iberian standards like the Spanish doubloon and the Portuguese moidore. In the 19th century ducats have been progressively dropped as standard coin of several nations, most significantly the Latin Monetary Union of 1865 (France, Italy, Switzerland) and the Vienna Monetary Treaty of 1857 (German Confederation, Austria-Hungary). By the 20th century ducats have transitioned from trade coin used in daily commerce to bullion coin for collectors and investors. Austria continued to strike ducats until 1915, and has continued to restrike the last of them, including some four ducat