Catalog
10 Gulden - Wilhelmina
| Issuer | Nederlandsch-Indië (Dutch East Indies Government) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1943 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Printed in red, the obverse bears a portrait vignette of Queen Wilhelmina at right, rendered in intaglio, with the Crowned Supported Arms of the Netherlands at left serving as a heraldic counterpart. The central field carries the denomination numeral '10' within a guilloché underprint, framed by typeset inscriptions in both Dutch and Malay establishing the note's legal tender status and its issuance authority under Royal Decree of 2 March 1943. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Printed in green, the reverse carries a central allegorical vignette uniting the three branches of the Dutch East Indies armed forces: an aviator with aircraft, a soldier, and a naval vessel, evoking wartime patriotic imagery. Anti-counterfeiting penal warnings are set in parallel columns, with the Dutch text of Articles 244, 245, and 249 of the Criminal Code at left and the Malay-language equivalent at right, flanking the central design. |
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| Comments |
This note was produced in wartime New York because the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies, which began in early 1942, had entirely severed the colonial government from its territory. The Netherlands Indies Civil Administration and the Dutch government-in-exile arranged printing contracts with the American Bank Note Company for a series of denominations intended for reintroduction once the archipelago was liberated — currency prepared in anticipation of a return, not an ongoing administration.
Repatriation came too late for orderly circulation. The 1943 series arrived in the Indies only in the chaotic final months of the Pacific War and its immediate aftermath, competing almost immediately with Japanese occupation scrip, pre-war Dutch colonial notes, and eventually the entirely new monetary structure imposed by the Indonesian independence movement. Many from this print run never circulated at all.