Indonesian Currency

Indonesian currency is Rupiah. is it influenced by the name of the Indian Rupee ? We do not know exactly. If it is right maybe because it was long time ago Indonesian people and culture are Hindus. The other reason is that even up to nowadays many Indonesian names and terminologies are Indian such as Madura, Sri, Wisnu, Yudha, Atma, etc.

The following is very simple history of our currency. First, during the Dutch colonization, Indonesian well-known as the Nethrland Indian used guilder, the Dutch currency, and it's small change, cent. They were cast on gold, silver, and brass. Then, it seems that when the Japanese colonized Indonesia, rupiah was firstly used by Dai Nippon Teikoku Seihu, and they still used cent for small change. They were printed on paper. At last rupiah has been used since the early of the Republic of Indonesia. And what about Indonesian sen (not cent) ? It was cast on some kinds of metals, aluminium, nickel, and brass and was used until 1968. The values were half a sen, one sen, two and a half sens, five sens, tens sens, twenty five sens, and fifty sens. Before the end of president Soekarno's era, one sen, five sens, ten sens, twenty five sens and fifty sens were printed on paper was Rp 1 the highest was Rp 1000. Today the longest digital currency in the world is rupiah, Rp 100,000. Wow...!

When the writer was a child, his mother gave him five sens for his pocket money per day. With this sum of money, he could spend two sens for a bowl of porridge for breakfast, one sen for a glass of drink, one sen for another snack and still could bring home another sen. It was his experience in 1950s. And when he was an SMA student in1965, his school fee was Rp 5. How high the value of our currency at that time was. Today if we talk about our salary or other income, tax, and other expenses, we must use the words of millions, billion even trillions of rupiahs, the words that was never heard about long time ago.