Netherlands East Indies: Coins Issued and Used

The Netherlands Indies gulden, later the Netherlands Indies Roepiah, was the currency issued by the Japanese occupiers in the Dutch East Indies between 1942 and 1945. It was subdivided into 100 sen and replaced the gulden at par.

In December 1941, the Empire of Japan began its assault on British Borneo; by January 1942 its armies had begun to attack those parts of the island which were part of the Dutch East Indies. This was followed by attacks on Sumatra and Java in February. Ultimately, the Dutch colonial government capitulated on 8 March 1942, though pockets of resistance lasted for several months. In the succeeding months, the Japanese government closed the existing banks, seized existing assets and currency, and assumed control of the Indies' economy.

Java was left under the administration of the Sixteenth Army, Sumatra under the Twenty-Fifth Army, and the remainder of the archipelago under the Japanese Navy. This administrative division meant that some notes were highly localized. For instance, the 100 and 1000 gulden notes, with a design similar to that used in occupied Malaya (also under the Twenty-Fifth Army), were only meant to be circulated in Sumatra. There is no evidence, however, that the latter were actually in use.

The Japanese forces surrendered on 15 August, and two days later the Republic of Indonesia proclaimed its independence. Initially, the widely available Japanese-issued roepiah were accepted as legal tender, together with the pre-war gulden, in both areas controlled by the Netherlands and those under Republican rule; indeed, the Netherlands Indies Civil Administration (NICA) printed more to deal with the costs of reestablishing Dutch administration in the area, though this also led to a continued increase in inflation. Japanese issued notes were not, however, at par with pre-war gulden; in Java, the exchange rate was 10:1 to 12:1.

The gulden was the unit of account of the Dutch East Indies from 1602 under the United East India Company (Dutch: Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie; VOC), following Dutch practice first adopted in the 15th century (gulden coins were not minted in the Netherlands between 1558 and 1681 and none circulated in the Indies until a century later). A variety of Dutch, Spanish and Asian coins were in official and common usage. After the collapse of the VOC at the end of the 18th century, control of the islands reverted to the Dutch government, which issued silver 'Netherlands Indies' gulden and fractional silver and copper coins until Indonesian independence in 1948.

Coinage was finally fully decimalised in 1854, with copper ​1⁄2, 1 and 2​1⁄2 cents and silver ​1⁄20, ​1⁄10 and ¼ gulden (although the 1821-1840 coinage continued to circulate). The new coinage bore Arabic script alongside Dutch language, which earlier Dutch-minted had not done. The ​1⁄20 gulden was only issued in 1854 and 1855, because it was too small to be convenient, but all other denominations continued to be issued until 1945, with copper changing to bronze from 1914, the addition of silver 1 and ​2 1⁄2 gulden coins in 1943 (in earlier years regular Dutch coins of ​1⁄2, 1 and ​2 1⁄2 gulden had circulated alongside the Indies ones), and a copper-nickel 5 cent that was issued in 1913, 1921 and 1922. No coins in any denomination were minted between 1861 and 1881. The last coins are dated 1941-1945 and were minted in the USA while the Dutch were tied up in World War II and the Japanese were ruling the Indies.

The gulden was the unit of account of the Dutch East Indies from 1602 under the United East India Company (Dutch: Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie; VOC), following Dutch practice first adopted in the 15th century (gulden coins were not minted in the Netherlands between 1558 and 1681 and none circulated in the Indies until a century later). A variety of Dutch, Spanish and Asian coins were in official and common usage. After the collapse of the VOC at the end of the 18th century, control of the islands reverted to the Dutch government, which issued silver 'Netherlands Indies' gulden and fractional silver and copper coins until Indonesian independence in 1948.

Coinage was finally fully decimalised in 1854, with copper ​1⁄2, 1 and 2​1⁄2 cents and silver ​1⁄20, ​1⁄10 and ¼ gulden (although the 1821-1840 coinage continued to circulate).