1000 Gulden

De Surinaamsche Bank was established in 1865 as a semi-private institution with the right of note issue, operating under Dutch colonial oversight — an arrangement that gave it unusual autonomy for a colonial bank while keeping ultimate monetary authority anchored in The Hague. The 1000 Gulden denomination would have been almost entirely a commercial instrument, cycling through plantation owners, traders, and merchant houses rather than ordinary retail circulation. Wage earners in Suriname in this period rarely handled notes of this value.

Joh. Enschedé en Zonen had been printing Dutch banknotes since the eighteenth century and brought considerable engraving sophistication to colonial commissions. The forty-five year date span of this issue reflects how slowly high-denomination notes turned over in a small colonial economy.