40 Gulden Spare Note

De Nederlandsche Bank maintained a class of so-called "spaarbiljetten" — spare notes — held in reserve against sudden demand surges rather than released into general circulation. This 40 Gulden denomination is among the more unusual in that reserve series; 40 Gulden sat at an awkward value point, neither everyday tender nor a high-denomination instrument, which may partly explain why relatively few entered actual use.

De Bussy, the Amsterdam printer, was the bank's domestic supplier for this period. The perforation security feature was applied at issuance control rather than as a cancellation mark — a distinction that matters when assessing whether a perforated example represents a circulated note or one that never left the vault.