Catalog
25 Rupiah
| Issuer | Treasury, Pendopo, Sumatra |
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| Year | 1949 |
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| Composition | Paper (lined/ruled paper) |
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| Obverse description | A locally produced emergency issue printed on ruled lined paper, with a large central numeral '25' rendered in a swirling, ornate vignette of scroll and wave motifs. Inscriptions appear across the upper and lower registers in Bahasa Indonesia, with a serial number visible in the upper-left area. The overall impression reflects wartime expedient production, with letterpress printing applied directly onto pre-ruled stationery paper. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is the plain ruled side of the lined paper substrate, bearing horizontal blue lines consistent with standard stationery. Faint offset impressions from the obverse printing are visible through the paper, and staining is present across the surface, consistent with age and circulation. No distinct design elements or inscriptions were intentionally printed on this side. |
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| Comments |
The Pendopo issue is one of the more striking examples of Indonesian revolutionary finance. Pendopo was an oil-producing district in South Sumatra, and local administrations across the archipelago were empowered — or simply forced by circumstance — to produce their own emergency currency during the independence struggle against the Dutch. This note was printed on lined paper, almost certainly ruled writing stock repurposed from whatever was available in 1949.
That material choice is the telling detail. The Dutch naval blockade had severed normal supply chains, and proper banknote paper was simply not obtainable. What survives today is as much a document of wartime improvisation as anything else.