Lot 4329

1864 - Letter from Professor Hofman to Enschedé & Zonen dated 10 maart 1864 concerning the Chinese tekst on the new series of banknotes of De Javaansche Bank - lettersheet with two stamps, rest of wax seal and in ink '5' (cent porto), one side written - a little brown at the edges, otherwise fresh - extremely rare and interesting document - NB. In 1864, the Javasche Bank issued a new series of notes with denominations between 5 and 1000 guilders (Pick 45-51, ON 185-194). The penal provisions in the event of forgery are printed on the back in four scripts: “Met den dood, te pronkstelling, opsluiting in een tuchthuis en verbanning wordt naar omstandigheden gestraft het namaken of vervalschen en het opzettelijk uitgeven van nagemaakte of vervalschte biljetten der Bank. (Staatsblad 1817 n°.4, 1822 n°.32 en 1859 n°.98.)”. Johan Enschedé & Zonen had the Chinese text checked by Jan Josef Hoffman, since 1855 the first professor of Chinese and Japanese at Leiden University. In this letter, Hofman reports that the text is correct, but provides detailed comments on the execution of two characters.