HistoricalNetherlands · a Lekdijk Bovendams water-board bond held at Yale · Issued 1648 · collection reported 2015
The water bond with an appointment
Interest Twelve years of me, collected in one visit. I do like a visit.
A Dutch water-board bond from 1648 was still earning interest when Yale collected a payment in 2015.
The payment record had run out of room. A paper extension made the trip; the bond stayed home in the library.
In 2015, Yale collected €136.20 for twelve years of interest on a Dutch water-board bond issued in 1648.
The payment record had filled up. A paper extension could travel for the collection while the original stayed in the library. The bond was old enough to be a museum piece and still needed someone to run an errand.
- Interest collected for 12 years
- €136.20
- collected in 2015
The euro figure is an interest payment for twelve years, collected in 2015. It is not the bond's principal, not a modern market value, and it does not enter any debt scale on this site. No annual rate is claimed and no oldest-debt label is applied. The 367-year age in the source's headline describes the object in 2015 and is not a claim of uninterrupted payment through today. This is a Dutch case dated 1648 and 2015, distinct from the 1825 London episode that hosts it. The issuer was the Hoogheemraadschap Lekdijk Bovendams and the body that paid in 2015 is its successor; a different, older Lekdijk Bovendams bond of 1624 is held elsewhere and is not this one.
Sources
- Yale's 367-year-old water bond still pays interest — Mike Cummings, Yale News. The paragraphs identifying the 1648 issue, the 2015 collection of €136.20 for 12 years of interest, and the travelling paper addendum added when the original ran out of space. The 367-year age in the headline describes the object in 2015; it is not a claim of uninterrupted payment through 2026.
These historical figures stay separate from the running debt comparison. Source review recorded: 2026-09-13.