500 Gulden

De Javasche Bank had already been nationalized by Indonesia in 1953, yet this note was issued under its name for Netherlands New Guinea — the western half of the island that the Dutch retained after Indonesian independence and administered separately until 1962. The dual attribution reflects the institutional awkwardness of that arrangement: De Javasche Bank existed in name for this territory while ceasing to function as such anywhere else.

Joh. Enschedé en Zonen printed the series in Haarlem, as they did for most Dutch colonial currency of the period. The 500 Gulden denomination would have seen limited day-to-day movement in a territory with a small cash economy, which kept circulation numbers low and genuine wear scarcer than surviving uncirculated stock might suggest.