100 Dollars Nederlandsche Handel Tobacco Deli in Medan, private issue

Private plantation scrip from the Deli tobacco belt — the region in North Sumatra that by the 1890s was supplying a significant share of the world's cigar wrapper leaf. Nederlandsche Handel Maatschappij-affiliated enterprises in Deli routinely issued their own currency substitutes to pay contract laborers on the estate system, where workers were legally bound under the notorious "Poenale Sanctie" — the penal sanction clause that made breach of contract a criminal offense. Scrip kept wages circulating within company-controlled stores rather than the broader colonial economy.

Enschedé's involvement gives this note its quality. The Haarlem firm printed for the Dutch colonial authorities throughout the Indies and was the logical choice for any issuer wanting engraved work of sufficient authority to discourage forgery at the plantation level.