20 Gulden 1941, Netherlands
| in Krause book | Number: 54 |
| Years of issue: | 19.03.1941 |
| Edition: | |
| Signatures: | President: L.J.A.Trip, Secretaris: J. Westerman Holstijn |
| Serie: | 1940 Issue |
| Specimen of: | 20.07.1939 |
| Material: | Cotton fiber |
| Size (mm): | 155 х 82 |
| Printer: | Joh. Enschede en Zonen, Haarlem |
* All pictures marked 
are increased partially by magnifying glass, the remaining open in full size by clicking on the image.
** The word "Specimen" is present only on some of electronic pictures, in accordance with banknote images publication rules of appropriate banks.
Description
Watermark:
Double pearl necklace of Queen Emma of the Netherlands and abbreviation "DeB" of Netherlands Bank.
Avers:
The engraving on banknote is made after this photo of Princess Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont. The date and author of photo are unknown. Today this photo belongs to Netherlands national archive, in the Hague.
Princess Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont (2 August 1858 - 20 March 1934) was Queen of the Netherlands and Grand Duchess of Luxembourg as the wife of King-Grand Duke William III. An immensely popular member of the Dutch Royal Family, she also served as regent for her daughter, Queen Wilhelmina, during the latter's minority.
Emma was born as Adelheid Emma Wilhelmina Theresia, Princess of Waldeck and Pyrmont on 2 August 1858 in Arolsen Castle in Arolsen, the capital of the small German principality of Waldeck and Pyrmont. She was the fourth daughter of Georg Viktor, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont and Princess Helena of Nassau.
Her brother, Friedrich, was the last reigning Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont. Her sister, Helena Frederica, would become the wife of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, a son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
Her maternal grandparents were William, Duke of Nassau and his second wife, Princess Pauline of Württemberg. Pauline was a daughter of Prince Paul of Württemberg and his wife Charlotte of Saxe-Hildburghausen.
Paul was a son of Frederick I of Württemberg and his wife, Duchess Augusta of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Augusta was the eldest daughter of Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg and Princess Augusta of Great Britain, elder sister of George III of the United Kingdom.
Emma married the elderly King William III in Arolsen on 7 January 1879, two years after the death of his first wife, Princess Sophie of Württemberg. The aging, licentious King, once described as "the greatest debauchee of the age", had previously been rejected by Emma's sister Pauline and by Princess Thyra of Denmark.
With William, Emma had her only child, the future Queen Wilhelmina, on 31 August 1880. The King also had three sons from his first marriage, William, Maurice, and Alexander, all of whom died before him without any legitimate offspring.
When William died on 23 November 1890, Emma became regent for her underage daughter, Wilhelmina, the late King's only surviving child until Wilhelmina's eighteenth birthday on 31 August 1898. The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, which could not be inherited by a woman at that time, passed to their distant cousin Adolf, Duke of Nassau who was also Queen Emma's maternal uncle.
She was the 812th Dame of the Royal Order of Queen Maria Luisa.
She died in The Hague on 20 March 1934, of complications from bronchitis at the age of 75, and was buried in Delft. 
On left side are "Men-of-war" of XVII century with Dutch flags..
The man-of-war (pl. men-of-war; also man of war, man-o'-war, man o' war, or simply man) was a British Royal Navy expression for a powerful warship or frigate from the XVI to the XIX century. The term often refers to a ship armed with cannon and propelled primarily by sails, as opposed to a galley which is propelled primarily by oars. The man-of-war was developed in England in the early XVI century from earlier roundships with the addition of a second mast to form the carrack. The XVI century saw the carrack evolve into the galleon and then the ship of the line. The evolution of the term has been given thus:
"Man-of-war. "A phrase applied to a line of battle ship, contrary to the usual rule in the English language by which all ships are feminine. It probably arose in the following manner: "Men of war" were heavily armed soldiers. A ship full of them would be called a "man-of-war ship." In process of time the word 'ship' was discarded as unnecessary and there remained the phrase "a man-of-war."" - Talbot in Henry Fredrick Reddall Fact, fancy, and fable, 1892, p. 340.
The man-of-war design developed by Sir John Hawkins, had three masts, each with three to four sails, which could be up to 200 feet long and could have up to 124 guns: four at the bow, eight at the stern, and 56 in each broadside. All these cannons required three gun decks to hold them, one more than any earlier ship. It had a maximum sailing speed of eight or nine knots.
Denominations in numerals are doubled at the top and in lower right corner. In words are on the right and left sides (vertically) and centered.
Revers:
On left side, lower, is the Schreierstoren.
The Schreierstoren (English incorrectly translated as: Weeper's Tower), originally part of the medieval city wall of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, was built in the XV century. It was the location from which Henry Hudson set sail on his journey to Northern America. This expedition would lead to the discovery of the island of Manhattan among others. It was built as a defense tower in 1481. It is currently a café. The old name was "Schreyhoeckstoren" meaning in old Dutch the sharp angle of the tower with the once connected citywalls. Later they started calling it in short the Schreierstoren.
The myth that it was the place where sailor's wives were weeping, when their men set sail is a romantic falsification.
Schreierstoren is known mainly for the fact that women wept there for their husbands, who would leave from that port, to go to war, or to fish. (Most of the weeping that was done was for the fishermen who left from that port.) While many in history have called this (the weeping, that is) a myth, there is one thing that may prove this a fact: there is a “memory tablet” in the tower, dating back to 1566, which “commemorates” a woman who was so “heart-grieved” at the depart of her husband, that she went insane.
On right side, lower, is Basilica of St. Nicholas.
The Basilica of Saint Nicholas (Dutch: Sint-Nicolaasbasiliek) is located in the Old Center district of Amsterdam, Netherlands. It is the city's major Catholic church.
Officially the church was called St. Nicholas inside the Walls, i.e. the oldest part of the Amsterdam defence works. The architect, Adrianus Bleijs (1842-1912) designed the church basing himself on a combination of several revival styles of which Neo-Baroque and neo-Renaissance are the most prominent models.
The facade is crowned by two towers with a rose window in between. The centre of this window is formed by a bas relief depicting Christ and the four Evangelists, made in the Van den Bossche and Crevels workshop in 1886. A sculpture of the patron saint of both the church and the city of Amsterdam was placed in a niche in the upper section of the gable top. The well-known sculptor Bart van Hove (1850-1914) made the sculpture in 1886. The crossing is articulated by a large octagonal tower with a baroque dome and lantern and crowned by a cross. The basis of the groundplan is the scheme of the classic three-aisled cross-basilica, i.e. a nave, two aisles and a single transept. The choir is located as is usual, at the end of the nave. In the corners formed by the transept and the nave, two chapels are located, traditionally devoted to Mary and Joseph.
The basilica has a collection of religious murals. Above the high altar is the crown of Maximilian I, which is a symbol seen throughout Amsterdam.
Inside the newly renovated church, a 19th-century Sauer Organ can be found, on which concerts are given and mass is accompanied.
Denominations in numerals are doubled lower and centered. In words are on the right and left sides (vertically).
Comments:
Designer: C.A.Lion Cachet.
Issued into circulation at 20 July 1939.
Bills were issued right before President's of Bank of Netherlands resignation.
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