Did You Know… St. Maarten’s 200 Guilder Banknote Was Selected as the World’s Most Beautiful Banknote of 2025?

You might know that in 2025, the monetary union of St. Maarten and Curaçao changed its currency from the Netherlands Antillean Florin (NAf) to the Caribbean Guilder (XCG) – but did you know it also won a design prize in 2026?

The International Bank Note Society (IBNS) selected the note for its 2025 Banknote of the Year competition from among 17 candidate banknotes from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. St. Maarten and Curaçao won the contest ahead of the 5-dollar bill from Fiji (2nd place) and the 100-kwacha bill from Zambia (3rd place). The competition has been held since 2004 and is considered the highest recognition for paper money design.

The 200 Caribbean guilder banknote features a longsnout seahorse (Hippocampus reidi) on the front, along with a giant tun shell. On the back, it features the Queen Emma Bridge in Curaçao, the famous floating pontoon bridge in Willemstad. The note is mostly purple (with the seahorse in orange) and is part of the “World Under the Sea” design series used by Curaçao and Sint Maarten. It also features high-relief vertical lines along the edges to signify its high denomination.

The 200 Caribbean guilder (XCG) was part of the March 31, 2025 replacement of the NAf (Netherlands Antillean guilder) at a 1:1 exchange ratio. The series introduced new denominations to better align with international payment practices (similar to the dollar and euro). The 200-guilder note effectively replaces the former 250-NAf note. Like its predecessor, the currency is pegged to the US dollar at a rate of 1.82 XCG to 1 USD (sell rate).