Catalog
2 1/2 Gulden Muntbiljet
| Issuer | Suriname |
|---|---|
| Year | 1985 |
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| Printer | Bradbury Wilkinson and Company, United Kingdom (1856-1990) |
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| Obverse description | Red-brown and light-blue on multicolour underprint. A vignette of a Blue-gray Tanager (Thraupis episcopus) perched on a branch occupies the left portion of the note. Four lines of text appear above the signature title at centre, with the inscription 'De Minister van Financien en Planning' and the registration date of 1 November 1985, Paramaribo. Printer's imprint of Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co. Ltd., New Malden, Surrey, England appears at the lower margin. |
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| Reverse description | Red-brown and light-green on multicolour underprint. A lizard vignette appears alongside a view of the Afobaka hydroelectric dam, rendered in fine engraved detail. The denomination and legal tender inscription are displayed in Dutch within a central text panel. |
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| Comments |
The 2½ Gulden denomination was a persistent fixture in Surinamese currency through the mid-twentieth century, but by 1985 it was a relic — small-denomination paper had largely lost its rationale as inflation steadily eroded purchasing power following independence from the Netherlands in 1975. Bradbury Wilkinson, by this point in the final years of operation before its absorption into De La Rue, printed competently but without the elaborate security features the firm was bringing to higher-value commissions elsewhere.
The muntbiljet designation — literally "coin note" — is telling. These were conceived as paper substitutes for coinage, not full banknotes, and were issued under different legal authority than the gulden notes of the Centrale Bank van Suriname.