Catalog
100 Gulden
| Issuer | De Javasche Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1938-1939 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 100 Gulden |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Printed in violet and dark orange, the obverse presents two Javanese dancers — a male figure to the left and a female figure to the right — set within an ornate vignette framed by the denomination. Bank identification text appears in the central register of the note, with the value numerals and lettering rendered in intaglio against a fine guilloche underprint. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
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| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
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| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Head of the Goddess of Justice and Truth. |
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| Comments |
De Javasche Bank was the colonial central bank of the Dutch East Indies, and by 1938 it was operating in the shadow of an increasingly unstable Pacific. The Enschedé press in Haarlem produced this series to high technical standards, as it had for the bank across multiple decades — the relationship between Enschedé and De Javasche Bank was one of the longest continuous banknote printing contracts in Dutch colonial finance.
Lion Cachet's involvement is the detail worth noting. A prominent Dutch artist with deep personal ties to Java — he had lived there and his decorative work drew heavily on Javanese visual traditions — his design commissions for De Javasche Bank gave the series a character quite unlike contemporary European colonial currency. Whether that carried any weight with the Javanese public is another question entirely.
Notes from the 1938–39 issue were still in circulation when Japan occupied the Dutch East Indies in March 1942.