The Japanese Occupation of the 'S' Netherlands Indies
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Updated September 17 2016
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The Japanese invaded the Dutch East Indies on 10 January 1942, with the rubber plantations and oil fields of the Dutch East Indies, which were crucial for the Japanese war effort, as their main objective. By March they had effectively conquered the region. They were initially welcomed by the native populace as liberators from what was widely seen, often correctly, as oppressive Dutch rule. However this occupation became the most destructive and oppressive form of colonial rule in Indonesian history. On a more positive note, the disruption and vast change brought about by the Japanese led to the permanent dislocation of Dutch rule, which they were never to successfully re-establish, and gave the Indonesians the opportunity to fight for and achieve independence by 1949.
The currency was initially printed in Japan in 1941 and distributed to Japanese troops on the invading ships on-route. It was immediately brought into circulation, alongside the existing Dutch issued currency which unusually, was not withdrawn. It is unique for Japanese Invasion money as the non-Japanese text is not in English but Dutch. These were supplemented in 1944 by the Netherlands Indies roepiah, equally unusual as they were an Indonesian language version of the gulden, and again the only example of native, non-English text used on any 'JIM' banknote. The motivation behind this later issue was to use anti Dutch sentiment to benefit their continued occupation under the fraudulent campaign of an "Asia for the Asians".
As it became progressively more difficult to ship money from Japan, as of October 1943, the 5 and 10 cent notes were printed by Kolff in Jakarta (Djakarta Insatsu Kodjo). This company went on to print the entire successor series to these notes. (right: an early photo of G. Kolff & Co., printers and booksellers)
After the war, the 'Japansche Regeering' issues were redeemable at a rate of 30 to 1, however these notes continued to circulate for various periods, as did some of the pre war Dutch colonial issues. For example, the 1942 series 10 Gulden is sometimes found with an overprint on the reverse indicating it's re-issue by the Islamic Republic of Indonesia between 1953-1965.
Australian Forgeries - In the last few years it has been confirmed that counterfeits of the Japanese Occupation Money for the Netherlands Indies was produced by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). Evidence of this comes from three letters found amongst official files located by the Senior Archivist, Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), which is the successor to the CBA.
The first letter was sent from the Netherlands Indies Commission to the Governor, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, on 5 October, 1942:
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"In order to effectively prosecute the war against Japan the Government of the Netherlands East Indies considers it essential to have at its disposal supplies of currency similar to that issued by Japan for circulation in the Netherlands East Indies.
The need is urgent and we have to request you to arrange to supply us as soon as they can be printed with the following quantities of notes which resemble as closely as possible the specimen notes handed to your Melbourne manager. 1/2 Gulden 12,800 pieces 10 Cents 30,000 pieces 5 Cents 10,000 pieces 1 Cent 10,000 pieces When completed we would be glad if you would deliver the notes to the order of Dr. R. E. Smits ((Managing Director of Javasche Bank)) as they may be required by him." |
The files are also known to contain references to the privately printed 'JIM' counterfeits, also produced in Australia during the war.
The 'S' letter used for the block and serial numbers either stands for 'Sumatra' or 'Shonan' - the latter being a Japanese name for the region meaning 'great eastern territories.'
The 'S' letter used for the block and serial numbers either stands for 'Sumatra' or 'Shonan' - the latter being a Japanese name for the region meaning 'great eastern territories.'
The Money
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De Japansche Regeering (The Japanese Government) '1942-1944' The Japanese text which appears in the lower border of every banknote translates as "The Government of Great Imperial Japan". The small circular seal found nearby is of the Ministry of Finance. Specimens: Notes overprinted with 見本 ('mi-hon') are specimens (right). Apparently - this has yet to be confirmed - but genuine specimen notes are not truly "overprinted", but have the mihon characters printed on the paper before the banknote design is added, so that they are in effect an underprint. Some though not all examples have 'specimen' printed on the back As with the Malaya notes, serial numbers were used for the initial printings of higher denomination notes (i.e., 1, 5, and 10 Gulden) but the printing machinery used by the Japanese after March 1943 (i.e., Kolff printing facility in Jakarta) did not allow for automatic sequential numbering thus the task was very slow and often resulted in multiple notes with the same serial number. By the middle of the second printing (the SB block) serial numbers were abandoned. Republik Islam Indonesia overprints: The 1, 5 and 10 Gulden notes are sometimes found with the overprint 'Republik Islam Indonesia', in a variety of colours, dating from a post-war re-issue. These are also found on the later Roepiah issues of 1945. These were overstamped and re-issued from 1953 during the rebellion of 1950-1965 as provisional issues of an Islamic state established in South Sulawesi by Lt. Colonel Kahar Muzakkar in opposition to the Indonesian central government. Right: overprinted 10 Gulden of 1942 (Krause specialized issues P S513) Other overprints are also reported. |
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1 Cent - Een Cent
Undated. Green on red/pink. (front) text and amount. (back) numerical amount and patterned borders. Printer: Japanese Government Type 1 (SCWPM 119a) Block serial: SA-SZ (left) Type 2 (SCWPM 119b) Fractional serial: S/AA-S/GX (right) Two plate widths known. Type 3 Specimen Type 4 Allied forgery |
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5 Cents - Vijf Cent
Undated. Blue on light tan. (front) text and amount. (back) numerical amount and patterned borders. Printer(s): Japanese Government (type 1, 2?). Djakarta Insatsu Kodjo (type 3). Other? Type 1 (SCWPM 120b) Block serial: SA-SZ (top left) Two varieties of block serial occur for 'SH' (middle and lower left; wide and narrow letter spacing). Type 2 (SCWPM 120c) Fractional serial: S/AA-S/GX (top right) Two plate widths known. Type 3 (SCWPM 120a) Prefix 'S' followed by a one or two digit number, S1 to S31. Issued c1943. As no 1 cent versions of these notes exist with alpha numerical serials it seems to be more than likely that these notes in fact represent the final issues of cent notes, produced by Kolff of Djakarta, after the 1 cent was discontinued due to inflation. Type 4 Specimen Type 5 Allied forgery |
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10 Cents - Tien Cent
Undated. Purple on pale yellow. (front) text and amount. (back) numerical amount and patterned borders. Printer(s): Japanese Government (type 1, 2?). Djakarta Insatsu Kodjo (type 3). Type 1 (SCWPM 121b) Block serial: SA-SZ (left). Scarce. Type 2 (SCWPM 121c) Fractional serial: S/AA-S/? (upper right) Two plate widths known. Type 3 (SCWPM 121a) Prefix 'S' followed by a one or two digit number, S1 to S31. Issued c1943. (right) As no 1 cent versions of these notes exist with alpha-numerical serials it seems to be more than likely that these notes in fact represent the final issues of cent notes, produced by Kolff of Djakarta, after the 1 cent was discontinued due to inflation. Type 4 Specimen Type 5 Allied forgery |
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1/2 Gulden
Undated. Similar to the Malaya 50 cents. Blue on yellow/pink. (front) fan palm at right. (back) numerical amount and patterned borders. Watermark: quatrefoil kiri flower. Printer: Japanese Government Type 1 (SCWPM 122a) Block serial: SA-SK, SM (right). The watermark is not discernible on some examples, possibly not present at all on early issues (SA and SB), as with the matching Malaya 50 cents. Two plate widths known. Type 2 (SCWPM 122b) Fractional serial: SL. There are two versions: the more common with closely printed letters 'SL' (below left), and the scarcer with wider spaced letters matching earlier issues of the note (below right). Two plate widths known.
Type 3 Specimen Type 4 Allied forgery |
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1 Gulden - Een Gulden Undated. Similar to the Malaya 1 Dollar. Brown on green. (front) Breadfruit tree at left, coconut palm at right. (back) amount and patterns. Watermark: quatrefoil kiri flower (not present on type 1) Printer: Japanese Government Type 1 (SCWPM 123a) Block serial: SA-SB with serial number, no watermark. Scarce (right). Type 2 (SCWPM 123b) Block serial: SB-SH, SL. Two plate widths known. Type 3 (SCWPM 123c) Block serial: SI, SN (right). Two plate widths known. Type 4 Specimen Type 5 Allied forgery |
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5 Gulden - Vijf Gulden
Undated. Similar to the Malaya 5 Dollars. Green on yellow. (front) Coconut palm tree at left, paw-paw tree at right. (back) amount and patterns. Watermark: quatrefoil kiri flower (not present on type 1) Printer: Japanese Government Type 1 (SCWPM 124a) Block serial: SA-SB with serial number, no watermark. Scarce. (right). Type 2 (SCWPM 124b) Block serial: SB-SF. Two plate widths known. Type 3 (SCWPM 124c) Block serial: SG (lower-right). Two plate widths known. Type 4 Specimen Type 5 Allied forgery Republik Islam Indonesia overprint
Right: An example of the 5 Gulden from this provisional series (SCWPM specialized issues P S512) issued from 1953 during the rebellion of 1950-1965 in support of an Islamic state established in South Sulawesi by Lt. Colonel Kahar Muzakkar in opposition to the Indonesian central government. See entry in introduction (above). |
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10 Gulden - Tien Gulden
Undated. Similar to the Malaya 10 Dollars. Purple on green-yellow. (front) Coconut palm tree, banana plant, and paw-paw tree. (back) coastal scene from beach, with steam ship and palms. Watermark: quatrefoil kiri flower (not present on type 1) Printer: Japanese Government Type 1 (SCWPM 125a) Block serial: SA-(SB?) with serial number, no watermark. Scarce. (right) Type 2 (SCWPM 125b) Block serial: SB-SH, SK. Type 3 (SCWPM 125c) Block serial: SI, SL (lower-right). Two plate widths known. Type 4 Specimen Type 5 Allied forgery - (below) The left details are off the back of a genuine note (SI), the right (SL) is a suspected Allied forgery: the paper is thin, white and the printing contains various differences; two are highlighted but others are discernible even in these small samples. The printing of the suspected forgery is faintly blurry, with merged detail. However there is the possibility that the differences are due to wartime printing difficulties, especially as the SL series was presumably the last (at least surviving) issue of the note. Below: A selection of comparative close-up images from the back of the suspected forgery, and from a standard issued example
Fig1 Left: forgery (suspected) Right: genuine
Republik Maluku Selatan overprint
Japanese occupation issues said to have been overprinted as a provisional issue of the island based 'Republic of South Moluccas (Maluku)' government during 1950-63. The RMS was defeated in 1963, and a government-in-exile continues to operate out of the Netherlands (1966-present). Right: An example of the 10 Gulden. The authenticity of this bar overprint type is open to question. |
Fig2 Left: forgery (suspected) Right: genuine
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