2 1/2 Gulden Muntbiljet

When Germany occupied the Netherlands in May 1940, the Dutch Caribbean territories were suddenly cut off from their financial infrastructure in The Hague. Curaçao, critically important as a refining hub for Venezuelan crude oil supplying Allied forces, needed functioning currency without access to its normal channels. The result was a series of emergency government notes — muntbiljetten — authorized directly by the colonial administration rather than through any central bank mechanism.

The American Bank Note Company had long-standing relationships with Dutch colonial authorities, and the wartime geography made New York the only practical option. This denomination, the awkward 2½ gulden, reflects the deeply ingrained Dutch monetary tradition of the "rijksdaalder" unit — a fraction that would have seemed strange to anyone outside the Dutch monetary system but was entirely conventional to Antillean users.