5 Rigsdaler Vestindisk Courant

The Kongelig Vestindisk Guineisk Rente- og Generaltoldkammer — the Royal Danish West Indies and Guinea Rent and General Customs Chamber — was a Copenhagen-based colonial administration body, and its banknotes circulated not in Denmark but in the Danish Caribbean colonies of St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John. The "Vestindisk Courant" denomination indicates value in the colonial currency unit, which was kept deliberately distinct from the Danish rigsdaler to manage the chronic specie drain that plagued plantation economies.

By 1799, the colonies were deep into sugar's profitable but volatile peak. Notes of this series are exceedingly rare today — the tropical climate of the Danish West Indies was merciless on paper currency.