Indonesian rupiah

File:Indonesian Rupiah.jpg

Rupiah (Rp) is the monetary unit of Indonesia (currency code IDR).

The name derives from the Indian monetary unit rupee. Indonesia used the Dutch guilder from 1610 to 1817, when the Dutch East Indies guilder was introduced. The rupiah was first introduced during the World War II Japanese occupation, and after the end of the war the Java Bank briefly issued its own Java rupiah as a replacement. The Netherlands' Nica guilder and various guerrilla-linked currencies were also in use around the archipelago.

Four years after independence, the Indonesian rupiah was introduced on November 2, 1949 as the new national currency. The Riau islands and the Indonesian half of New Guinea (Irian Barat) had their own variants of the rupiah, but these were subsumed into the national rupiah in 1964 and 1971 respectively. Devalued by rampant inflation, on December 13, 1965 the New Rupiah was introduced at a rate of 1,000 old rupiah to one new rupiah.

The Asian economic crisis of 1997-1998 reduced the rupiah's value by 35% overnight and was a major factor in the overthrow of President Suharto's government. The rupiah had traded at about 2,000-3,000 rupiah per 1 US dollar, but reached a low of 16,800 rupiah per dollar in June 1998.

The rupiah is a freely convertible currency, but trades at a penalty due to continued high inflation. As of early October 2005, USD 1 is worth approximately Rp 10,300 and GBP 1 is worth Rp 18,100.

Indonesian currency comes in whole units only, as sen (1/100 rupiah, cents) have been eliminated due to inflation.

Denominations

• Coins
  • 25 rupiah
  • 50 rupiah
  • 100 rupiah
  • 200 rupiah^*
  • 500 rupiah
  • 1,000 rupiah

• Banknotes
  • 100 rupiah
  • 500 rupiah
  • 1,000 rupiah
  • 5,000 rupiah
  • 10,000 rupiah
  • 20,000 rupiah
  • 50,000 rupiah
  • 100,000 rupiah

^* only available in some parts of Indonesia.

External links

• Daily Rupiah exchange rates from other currencies (Bank Indonesia rates)
• Latest Rupiah exchange rates from USD, EUR, GBP, and other currencies (from Yahoo! Finance)
• Bank Indonesia (BI, Central Bank of Republic of Indonesia)
• Indonesian Government Security Printing and Minting Corp. (PERURI)
• Identifying the authenticity of Rupiah banknotes and coins (Bank Indonesia)
• Information on Rupiah (expat.or.id)
• Images of banknotes Rupiah (Banknotes.com)
• Images of banknotes Guilder (Banknotes.com)