500 Gulden - Wilhelmina

This note was produced in New York as part of the exile printing program organized after the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies began in early 1942. With the colonial administration operating from Australia and the Netherlands itself under German occupation, the American Bank Note Company became the practical option for maintaining a functioning currency supply — however theoretical that function was while the islands remained under Japanese control.

The 500 Gulden denomination made it one of the highest-value instruments in the series, and its utility in an occupied territory was essentially nil until liberation. Many were held in reserve and released into circulation only after 1945, which complicates any assessment of genuine wear patterns on surviving examples.