5 Gulden

The 1943 date is striking given that the Netherlands had been under German occupation since May 1940. Enschedé's Haarlem plant continued operating under occupation, which raises an obvious question about how notes for a Caribbean Dutch colony were produced and delivered during wartime. The answer is that Curaçao — strategically vital as home to one of the largest oil refineries in the world, supplying Allied forces — remained free territory, and the colonial banking infrastructure needed to function. Whether sheets were printed before the occupation and held, or produced under controlled conditions and shipped via Allied channels, is not definitively settled for this series.

Pick 25 is part of a small emergency wartime run for the island.