Riau rupiah

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Riau, though part of Dutch and Indonesian territory was economically under the influence of neighbouring Malaya.[1] In order to affirm its fiscal stake in the region, Indonesia decided the replace the Malaya and British Borneo dollar, which was the circulating currency, with an Indonesian-issued currency, the Riau rupiah. As with the West Irian rupiah, the new currency replaced the old at par (although the rupiah resembled the Indonesian rupiah in appearance, it was given a much higher value). This was decreed on 15 October 1963, with Malayan money withdrawn from 1st November 1963.

The Riau rupiah was much more short-lived than the West Irian rupiah, and by Presidential decree effective from 1st July 1964, the Riau rupiah was no longer a valid currency; the Indonesian rupiah superseded it as the valid currency within Riau.

[edit] Banknotes

Bank Indonesia notes were printed by Indonesian printer P.N. Pertejetakan Kebajoran dated '1960' with the overprint 'Riau' in denominations of 5, 10, and 100 rupiah, all carrying the image of President Soekarno but with colour and other design differences. Lower denomination notes, under Indonesian (and previously Netherlands Indies) law were the issuing privilege of the Indonesian government, and for Riau bore the date '1961' with the overprint 'Riau', in 1 and 2 1/2 rupiah denominations.

Identical notes, but for the overprint, were used for the West Irian rupiah in 1964. The five notes issued in Riau, the 5, 10, and 100 rupiah notes, minus the 'Riau' overprint, plus the 1 and 2 1/2 rupiah note designs, redated '1964', were then also used as Indonesian rupiah notes in 1965.

The same design had been intended for issue in Kalimantan Utara Green (1) and blue (2 1/2) variants of the 1 and 2 1/2 notes had also incidentally been printed, intended for issue in North Borneo, which Indonesia saw as a possible extension to its territory due to the power vacuum in the region at that time.

[edit] Coinage

Coins were issued in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 25 and 50 sen. All were minted in aluminium and dated 1962. They bore the identifying incription "Kepulauan Riau" on their edge (cf. West Irian rupiah).

The Riau rupiah was exchangeable as a foreign currency with the Indonesian rupiah at a rate of 1 Riau rupiah = 14.7 Indonesian rupiah.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] External links

• Don's World Coin Gallery - Indonesia
• Ron Wise's World Paper Money - Indonesia, regional ^{Mirror site}
• Tables of Modern Monetary Systems by Kurt Schuler - Asia ^{Mirror site}
• The Global History of Currencies - Indonesia
• Global Financial Data currency histories table ( Microsoft Excel format)

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