Juliana (The Hague, 30 April 1909 - Soestdijk, 20 March 2004)
Queen of the Netherlands (1948 - 1980)
"A very human assumption of office" (Queen Beatrix in her Speech from the Throne)

Juliana was the only daughter of Queen Wilhelmine and her husband Duke Heinrich zu Mecklenburg. The Crown Princess was named "Juliana" after Juliana zu Stolberg, the progenitrix of the older and younger lines of the House of Orange.

After her education by private tutors, Juliana enrolled at the renowned University of Leiden in 1927 and underwent a three-year "Studium Generale", including studies with the cultural historian Johan Huizinga. During her studies the princess, who until then had been isolated at court, lived in a student flat-sharing community and made her first acquaintance with normal everyday life. This experience may have contributed to her later cultivation of a pronounced "closeness to the people" as queen. The Dutch responded to this attitude with great sympathy for the royal house. Juliana abolished the court curtsey, walked beside the red carpet on official occasions, and allowed herself to be addressed with the civil "Mevfrouw" ("Madam") instead of "Majesty".

Princess Juliana married Bernhard zur Lippe-Biesterfeld on 7 January 1937. This marriage produced four daughters: Beatrix, born 1938; Irene, born 1939; Margriet, born 1943; and Christina, born 1947 (+ 2019).

When Nazi Germany invaded the neutral Netherlands during the Second World War in May 1940, the royal family fled to England. While Prince Bernhard, like his mother-in-law Queen Wilhelmine, organised the Dutch resistance from London, Juliana lived with daughters Beatrix and Margriet for the most part in Canada and the USA, where she met the then President Truman. She was impressed by his ideals, which postulated, among other things, freedom of religion and opinion. It is under this influence that the almost left-liberal attitude of the later queen will have developed.

After the Second World War, Juliana returned to Holland with her daughters. She took over the crown from her mother, who had been queen for 50 years, on 6 December 1948. Among her first foreign policy acts was the signing of the Deed of Separation of the Dutch Kingdom from Indonesia on 27 December 1949, marking the close of the decolonisation of "Dutch India", which had not been completed without military conflict. In complete contrast to her mother Wilhelmine, who still followed an autocratic style, Juliana was a socially committed, very popular monarch during her reign, as was readily accepted by the population in a modern democracy. Because of her deeply humanistic attitude, she also never signed a death warrant. Unforgotten among the Dutch population is the great sympathy Queen Juliana showed during the storm surge disaster of 1953, which with 89 dike breaches is considered the largest storm surge of the 20th century. Wading through the water with daughter Beatrix in rubber boots and encouraging the survivors, she showed a personal commitment that was by no means common for European royal houses at that time.

All in all, Queen Juliana's reign could be described as successful if it had not been overshadowed by two affairs. First, the prayer healer Greet Hofmans, whom she had called in because of an eye disease in her youngest daughter, was said to have exerted too strong a pacifist influence on the queen (according to public opinion). Later her husband Prince Bernhard was suspected of having been involved in the so-called "Lockheed Starfighter Scandal", whereby it was suspected that he had received bribes from the US aircraft manufacturer. This affair developed into a state crisis, in the course of which the Queen threatened to resign if her husband was indicted. On 30 April 1980, Juliana abdicated in favour of her daughter Beatrix and thereafter held the title of "Princess". Despite her advanced age, she repeatedly took on representative duties until she had to withdraw from the public eye due to Alzheimer's disease. She died at Soestdijk Castle on 20 March 2004 at the age of 94. The funeral took place on 30 March with a state burial ceremony in the royal cemetery in the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft.

De eerste munten met de beeltenis van Koningin Juliana dateren van 1950 en een ontwerp van 1949. Ze kijkt naar rechts, een voortzetting van de traditie dat de kijkrichting verandert bij de wisseling van een vorst. Nadat de nieuwe munten van koningin Wilhelmina met het jaartal 1948 in omloop gebracht waren zijn alle oude munten langzamerhand ingetrokken en buiten omloop gesteld op:

1 oktober 1948: ½ Gulden zilver, 2½ Cent brons en zink en ½ Cent brons

15 augustus 1950: 25 Cent zilver en zink, 5 Cent nikkel en zink

15 september 1952: 1 Cent zink

11 september 1953: 10 Cent zink en 1 Cent brons

22 februari 1955: 1 Gulden zilver

15 oktober 1958: 2½ Gulden zilver

19 januari 1960: 10 Cent zilver

Van de inlevering is op tamelijk ruime schaal gebruik gemaakt, alleen de bronzen centen en vooral de ½ centen zijn achtergehouden.

Ingeleverd % / niet ingeleverd aantal op 1.1.1961:

2½ Gulden ± 98.3% / 71.400 stuks

1 Gulden ± 98.8% / 1.256.285 stuks

½ Gulden ± 91.3% / 1.589.864 stuks

25 Cent ± 80.9% / 25.815.316 stuks

10 Cent ± 57.9% / 133.809.140 stuks

5 Cent ± 80.2% / 11.062.280 stuks

2½ Cent ± 74.8% / 24.082.480 stuks

1 Cent ± 47.4% / 298.477.100 stuks

½ Cent ± 11.0% / 128.658.800 stuks

Van de niet ingeleverde stukken zijn natuurlijk ook vele verloren gegaan, versmolten, uitgevoerd enz. terwijl in Suriname de Nederlandse munten, geslagen volgens de Muntwet 1901, wettig betaalmiddel zijn gebleven. Als gevolg van de op 21 september 1949 afgekondigde devaluatie van de Nederlandse gulden kwam de koersverhouding ten opzichte van de Surinaamse gulden te liggen op 2 : 1. Er bestaan daar nog Centen enz. van het oude grote Nederlandse type met jaartallen na 1945. Vanaf 1962 is voor Suriname een nieuw type munt geslagen. In 1975 verkreeg Suriname de onafhankelijkheid zodat daarmede de Nederlandse muntslag eindigde.
Voor Curaçao en de Nederlandse Antillen zijn munten geslagen met eigen opschriften.
Op Nieuw Guinea waren de nieuwe Nederlandse munten in omloop. Er was daar dus geen eigen metalen geld.