rupee

₨

₹

Rupee ( Rupiah , Rupee , sign: ₨, for the Indian Rupee ₹), is the name of the currencies of several countries.

Countries with a currency called "rupee"

List of countries

• India ; see Indian rupee .
• Indonesia ; see Indonesian rupiah .
• Maldives ; see Rufiyaa .
• Mauritius ; see Mauritius rupee .
• Nepal ; see Nepalese rupee .
• Pakistan ; see Pakistani rupee .
• Seychelles ; see Seychelles rupee .
• Sri Lanka ; see Sri Lankan rupee .

Concept and history

The term “rupee” is derived from the ancient Indian word rūp or rūpā meaning “silver”. The Sanskrit word rūpyakam (रूप्यकम्) means "silver coin". Hence the derivation rūpaya, which has been used since 1540 for a silver coin of 178 grains (11.534 grams). Originally the rupee was divided into 16 anna , 64 paisa and 192 pai.

According to Regulation VII of 1833, sixteen of the new sikka rupees in Calcutta were worth one gold mohur (11/12 fine since 1819). In the presidencies of Bombay and Madras, the ratio was 15 to 1.

Historical currency unit

In order to stop the decline in the value of the Indian rupee against the pound, which has been increasing since 1875, as this led to an imbalance in public finances , the value of the rupee was guaranteed on a gold basis from 1898 onwards. One rupee was now equivalent to £ 1/15.

Currencies with the name "rupee" existed in the following areas:

• on the soil of today's India in the colonial areas of the following countries: Denmark , France and Portugal ; as well as a separate rupee in the state of Hyderabad
• in neighboring Indian states such as Burma , Sri Lanka , Afghanistan
• in areas that were economically controlled from India under English rule, such as British East Africa , Zanzibar and the Persian Gulf
• in German East Africa . The rupees of the German East African Society (since 1890) did not participate in this guarantee. In order to prevent their complete loss of acceptance, society gave up coinage and left it to the empire. As of April 1, 1905, the German East African rupee was guaranteed at 1.33 marks.
• in Italian Somaliland
• in Indonesia at the time of the Japanese occupation in World War II
• in Bahrain , Qatar , Kuwait , Oman and the Trucial States from 1959 the Gulf rupee as the successor to the Indian rupee previously used there

Web links

Wiktionary: Rupee  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

supporting documents

• Bock, Marc-Thomas: The rupee - the fascinating diversity of a colonial world currency , in: Muenzen Revue, 10/2014, pp. 30–34

1. ^ Cabinet approves new rupee symbol , Times of India, July 15, 2010, accessed July 15, 2010.
2. ^ Coins Weight and Measures of British India. Useful Tables Forming an Appendix to the Journal of the [Bengal] Asiatic Society; Calcutta 1834, p. 1