5 Sen Netherlands East Indies

Japan occupied the Netherlands East Indies from early 1942 and almost immediately faced the problem of supplying coinage to a vast archipelago while aluminium shortages at home were already biting. These occupation issues were struck in Japan and shipped out, a logistical reality that kept mintages concentrated rather than distributed across local facilities. The Dutch colonial coinage they displaced had been evacuated or melted; what remained in circulation was improvised.

By 1943, the aluminium allocation for subsidiary coinage was already being squeezed by military demands.