Catalog
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| Issuer | De Javasche Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1943 |
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| Value | 2½ Gulden / Rupiah |
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| Obverse description | Printed in purple on white cotton paper, the obverse carries the title 'NEDERLANDSCH-INDIË / MUNTBILJET' at the top in a bold letterpress banner. To the left, a circular vignette presents the Dutch colonial coat of arms within an ornate frame, overlaid with a violet circular cancellation stamp reading 'SEROEPATHI'. To the right, an intaglio portrait of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands is set within a guilloche-bordered oval. The central denomination numeral '2½' appears in large format between the two vignettes, flanked by serial number 'BC090157A' printed in red at upper left and upper right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | NEDERLANDSCH-INDIË MUNTBILJET TWEE EN EEN HALVE NEDERLANDSCH-INDISCHE GOUVERNEMENTSGULDEN DOEA ROEPIAH LIMAPOELOEH SEN WETTIG BETAALMIDDEL UITGEGEVEN KRACHTENS KONINKLIJK BESLUIT VAN 2 MAART 1943, N°1 STBL. D8 DE JAVASCHE BANK AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY. |
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| Comments |
De Javasche Bank — the Netherlands Indies' central bank, established in Batavia in 1828 — was effectively in exile by 1943. Japan had occupied the Dutch East Indies in early 1942, and this note was printed in New York by the American Bank Note Company for a government and banking institution that no longer had physical access to its own territory. It was prepared in anticipation of liberation, not for immediate use.
The ABNC contract work from this period is generally clean and consistent. Liberation came in 1945, but the subsequent Indonesian independence struggle meant these notes entered a deeply unstable monetary environment rather than the orderly restoration Dutch planners had envisioned.