Thursday, 7 April 2016

Why do we call it the rupiah?

For those of us out there who are travelling to Indonesia soon, you'll most likely head to the money changers for currency exchange. Here's a little something about Indonesia's official currency; it is called the Indonesian Rupiah (IDR). The Rupiah derives its name from its sister currency the Indian Rupee.

Issued by the official bank of Indonesia, the official symbol or currency code is known by 'RP' and its history dates back to . The coins are called 'Sen' in the local language is pronounced the same as 'Cent' with a silent 'T'. Denominations are as such that 100Rp, 200Rp, 500Rp, and 1000Rp are in coins whereas the rest are in notes as shown (1000 IDR can be in notes as well):


Below are a specimen of the Rupiah notes with denominations being 1000Rp, 2000Rp, 5000Rp, 10'000Rp, 20'000Rp, 50'000Rp, and 100'000Rp respectively.



The currency's devaluation played a significant role in the overthrow of the Suharto regime in 1998. The Rupiah received a revised version of their currency in 2011 and is getting stronger recently as of the year 2016. The notes have security features that are common such as watermarks, electrotypes along with security threads and some others that may have been included are holograms, gold patches, or clear windows.


 Interestingly, locals may sometimes refer to the currency as 'Perak' which means silver in Indonesian. With that, be sure to have your notes exchanged before the trip to prevent looking around for a money changer when you land; however, most airports will have money changers. Till next time, safe travels everyone!!

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