Escher received a commission in July 1950 from the De Nederlandsche bank (The bank of the Netherlands) for a series of banknotes (of 10, 25 and 100 guilder, with a later one of 50 guilder), to be printed by the engravers J. Enschedé and Sons. This took up a great deal of Escher's time, of which he worked on this at an intermittent basis from 1950-1953.

Escher composed designs for the obverse, reverse and watermarks, with a variety of orthodox artwork of a typical nature for banknotes along with tessellation.

The obverse took the form of portraits of eminent Dutch and Dutch/Belgian scientists, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723), Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) and Simon Stevin (1548-1620) along with their achievements and scientific implements.

The reverse is less structured, containing a pictorial miscellany of Leeuwenhoek and Stevin’s achievements, whilst Huygens’ note has a variation of drawing 55 [Fish], of November 1942. The latter also had as a watermark a variation of drawing 44 [Birds], of 1941, of which this was apparently chosen without a specific reference to Huygens achievements. A further proposed watermark is a variation of drawing 12 [Butterfly], of which the butterfly motif is transformed into a ‘bee’.

However, despite strenuous efforts on Escher's part to accommodate the necessarily strict procedures for the print process, the commission was eventually withdrawn.