INDONESIAN RUPIAH

The rupiah (Rp) is the official currency of Indonesia. Issued and controlled by the Bank of Indonesia, the ISO 4217 currency code for the Indonesian rupiah is IDR. The symbol used on all banknotes and coins are Rp. The name derives from the Indian monetary unit rupee. Informally, Indonesians also use the word "perak" ('silver' in Indonesian) in referring to rupiah. The rupiah is subdivided into 100 sen, although inflation has rendered all coins and banknotes denominated in sen obsolete.

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 (see Riau rupiah and West New Guinea rupiah).

The current rupiah consists of coins from 25 rupiah up to 1,000 rupiah, and from banknotes of 1,000 rupiah up to 100,000 rupiah. With US$1 generally worth 9-10,000 rupiah, the largest Indonesian banknote is therefore worth around US$10.

As the smallest current note is worth approximately US$0.10, even small transactions such as bus fares are typically conducted with notes, and the 1,000 rupiah note is far more common than the 1,000 rupiah coin. The government has however announced a change to this, with a new 2000 rupiah note to be issued in Q2 2008, and the 1000 rupiah note withdrawn, to be replaced with a coin.^[1] The measure is intended to cut the cost of issuing money. Hence denominations up to 1000 (~$0.10) would be handled in coin, and from 2000 (~$0.20) and up in notes.

Pre-1997 notes are no longer legal tender, due to the lack of security features and association with the Suharto regime, but can be exchanged in Bank Indonesia offices until 2010.[^[2] Due to the low value of the notes below 1000 rupiah, although they are no longer being circulated, some remain in use in increasingly poor condition, as low denomination 'uang pasar' (literally wet market money), outside the banking system for use in informal transactions.

The 10,000 rupiah notes and above all exist in two legal tender designs. However, the 2004 and 2005 series are gradually replacing the 1998 and 1999 series.

The central bank plans to issue a 2,000 rupiah banknote in a near term.