Netherlands East Indies - Minted by the U.S. Mint

Set Description
Coins of the Netherlands East Indies
Struck by the United States Mint (1941-1945)

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The U.S. Mints produced a little over 1.7 Billion coins for the Dutch Colony of the Netherlands East-Indies during World War II while the Netherlands was under German occupation. With the exception of the Philippines, this is the largest number of coins produced for any foreign country by the U.S. mint, and it all occurred in just four years! The following is a year by year analysis which will attempt to provide context for these mintages.

• 1940 - Germany invaded the Netherlands on May 10, 1940, and the Dutch armed forces surrendered on May 15, 1940. Queen Wilhelmina escaped to London and took charge of the Dutch government in exile. The Royal Dutch Mint was unavailable to produce coinage for the Netherlands or any of its colonies.
• 1941 - The United States Mint was contracted to produce coinage for the Netherlands East Indies. The Philadelphia and San Francisco mints struck 140 million 1/10G and 1/4G coins for circulation in the Netherlands East Indies which was still under Dutch control.
• 1942 - The U.S. mints in Philadelphia and San Francisco struck 207 million Cents, 1/10G, and 1/4G coins for circulation in the Netherlands East Indies. On March 8, 1942 the Netherlands East Indies fell under Japanese rule when the Royal Dutch East Indies Army surrendered in Java.
• 1943 - Even though the Netherlands East Indies was under Japanese control, the U.S. Mint in Denver struck 20 million silver one Gulden and 2 million 2-1/2 Gulden coins in anticipation of the eventually liberation of the colony from the Japanese.
• 1944 - Parts of New Guinea, Maluku and Borneo were recaptured. No coins were struck.
• 1945 - All three mints struck a staggering 1,347,368,000 coins in anticipation of the liberation of the Netherlands East Indies from the Japanese. The occupation officially ended when the Japanese surrendered on August 15, 1945. Two days later, Sukarno declared Indonesian Independence from the Netherlands. The Dutch had other plans which led to the four year war for Indonesian independence.
• 1949 - Indonesia became an independent nation on December 14, 1949.

So what became of these coins in light of the timeline above? The events, territories, and money issuing groups that came and went during the war for independence are very complex, and well beyond what can adequately be explained here. The most important impact of this period of civil war and conflict was that the Gulden was worth substantial less after WW-II than before. Some of these coins were issued in New Guinea, Maluku and Borneo, which had been retaken before the Japanese surrender. I suspect this is where many of the 1943-D silver one Gulden and 2-1/2 Gulden coins were released since circulated specimens are relatively easy to find whereas uncirculated coins are very elusive. Between 1947 and 1949, the Dutch administration issued the bronze and silver coins which had been minted in 1943 and 1945 in more parts of the colony(country). Due to inflation though, the value of the silver exceeded the face value, and many were melted or turned into household goods and silver artifacts. In other words, the production of these coins was ultimately a tremendous waste of time and precious mint resources in 1945.

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The Coins in this Set
Each coin in this set is identified by the KM number as defined by Krause & Mishler. Each description also contains historical information on the issue and an explanation of the content of the obverse and reverse of the coin. Variety descriptions are provided where appropriate.

A common element on all of the coins in this set is the presence of a Palm Tree privy mark to the left of the date. This was used to differentiate coins intended for circulation in the colonies from those intended for circulation in the Netherlands which would have an Acorn to the left of the date. This practice seems completely unnecessary since these coins were very obviously struck for exclusive use in the Netherlands East Indies, but the tradition of the Royal Dutch Mint was followed. With the exception of the higher denomination coins minted in 1943, the reverse of all of the other coins contains text in both Arabic and Javanese. This text basically reiterates the denomination of the coins in both languages in order to accommodate the cultural diversity of the colony/country.

Four coins are included in this set that might not normally be included. They consist of three error coins and one variety not cataloged by Krause. The 1945-P/S One Cent is the only one I've ever seen and is the only one to have been graded by either NGC or PCGS.

There are also three coins listed by Krause that are not presently in this set. Krause lists low P mint mark variations for both the 1945-P Half Cent and One Cent coins, as well as a 1945-P/P 1/10G. I have searched for these varieties for many years and have yet to encounter any of them. Based on population reports, it doesn't appear that any of the grading services have either. When I find one, I will add it to the set. Until then, I will consider this set complete.

Eleven of the coins in this set were acquired as raw coins and self submitted to NGC. The rest were already in an NGC holder when purchased.

One of the coins is mislabeled and will be corrected as time and resources permit. The slot names for the 1945P 1/10G are correct.

The 1941P 1/10G and the 1941P 1/4G were won in 2022 eBay auctions, and were supposedly delivered to my mailbox. Unfortunately, I never received them. Since one is the finest known and the other has only one known finer, I chose to retain ownership rather than attempt to obtain a refund or collect on insurance. After many attempts with USPS to find them, I went through the rather tedious process of filing a police report so that NGC would designate them as stolen. It's been quite some time now, but I'm basically an optimist, so I'm still hoping they will be recovered. Until then, I am the owner of record and will continue to display them in this set.

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Slot Name Modifiers
When this set was originally created, 14 of the 22 coins in this set were NGC Top Pop coins with 6 being the single finest known specimens graded by NGC. Time marches on though and these coins have grown in popularity. As of this revision, 10 remain Top Pop coins with just 2 remaining the single finest known specimens. The set also contains three mint error coins. The following table shows the symbols used to indicate population rarity.

_Modifier_	Description_____________________________
(*)	NGC Top Pop, none graded higher
(**)	NGC Finest known. (no equal and none higher)

References:
History of the Indonesian rupiah - Dutch/Allied re-occupation

Set Goals
A complete set of coins minted by the U.S. Mint for the Netherlands East Indies during World War II with all of the primary coins graded MS65 or higher. Any variety or error coins may be lower. This basic goal has been met with the exception of the 1941S 1/4G at MS64 which currently has only three finer awarded by NGC. Until I find a nicer raw or graded coin, I may have gone about as far as I can go save for an occasional upgrade.

Rev 10/5/2023