Catalog
5 Roepiah Japanese Occupation
| Issuer | Japanese Imperial Government (Dai Nippon Teikoku Seifu) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1944 |
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| Currency | Gulden (decimalized, 1854-1948) |
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| Obverse description | Olive-green on light green underprint, the obverse presents a vignette of a traditional Batak rumah adat to the left, flanked by the denomination numeral and bilingual inscriptions in Latin script and Japanese characters arranged across the face. A plate letter prefix appears within the serial number block. The overall layout is characteristic of wartime Japanese occupation issues for the Dutch East Indies. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | DAI NIPPON TEIKOKU SEIHU LIMA ROEPIAH SM 府政國帝本日大 (Translation: Imperial Japanese Government Five Roepiah Imperial Japanese Government) |
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| Comments |
The Japanese occupying administration issued this note for the Netherlands East Indies as part of a parallel currency system designed to displace Dutch colonial money and fund wartime resource extraction — particularly oil, rubber, and tin. The Roepiah denomination name was a deliberate choice, mirroring the familiar Dutch colonial spelling to ease public acceptance of the new paper.
Printed in Japan by the Imperial Printing Bureau and shipped to the occupied territories, the notes were produced in enormous quantities with little concern for monetary discipline. Inflation accelerated sharply by 1944, and this issue was essentially worthless before the Japanese surrender in August 1945.