Catalog
5 Gulden
| Issuer | Curaçaosche Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1879-1909 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Gulden (1828-date) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 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 | Black intaglio printing on orange guilloche underprint, with an ornate typographic border framing the entire note. The central text block carries the bank name and denomination in period letterpress script, with various director signature combinations appearing across issues. Redeemed examples bear the handstamped inscription 'zonder waarde' (without value). |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is uniface, showing only the show-through of the obverse printing visible through the plain paper stock, with no additional design elements printed on this side. |
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| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Comments |
The Curaçaosche Bank was established in 1828, making it one of the oldest banks of issue in the Caribbean — but it took another five decades before this first printed note series appeared. The long gap reflects persistent reliance on Dutch metropolitan currency and informal credit instruments in the colony's trade economy. P#1 is the opening entry in Dutch Caribbean paper money collecting, and the thirty-year issue window suggests plates were reused across multiple print runs rather than redesigned.
Enschedé in Haarlem had been printing securities since the early eighteenth century and was the obvious choice for Dutch colonial currency work. That relationship would continue well into the twentieth century.