Rupee
The rupee is the name of the currencies used in 8 countries; India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Mauritius, Seychelles, Indonesia, and Maldives.
Etymology
The origin of the word rupee is found in the word rūp or "rūpā, from Sanskrit, which means silver; hence the word rūpyakam which means "silver coin". The term rūpyakam was used to denominate the coin introduced by Sher Shah Suri during his reign from 1540 to 1545 AD. c.
History
The history of the rupee dates back to Ancient India around the III century BCE. Ancient India was one of the world's earliest coin issuers, along with Lydian staters, several other Middle Eastern coins, and the Chinese wen. The term comes from rūpya, a Sanskrit term for silver coin, from the Sanskrit rūpa, beautiful shape.
Arthashastra, written by Chanakya, chief adviser to the first Maurya Emperor Chandragupta Maurya (c. 340-290 BCE), mentions silver coins as rūpyarūpa, other types are mentioned including gold coins (rūpya-suvarṇa), copper coins (tāmrarūpa) and lead coins (sīsarūpa). Rūpa means form or figure, eg, rūpyarūpa, rūpya - forged silver, rūpa - form. This system of coinage continued more or less throughout the Indian subcontinent until the 20th century.
In the intervening times there was no fixed monetary system, as stated in the Da Tang Xi Yu Ji.
During his rule from 1537 to 1545, Afghan ruler Sher Shah Suri of the Southern Empire established a new civic and military administration and issued a silver coin, weighing 178 grains, also called the Rupiya . Suri also introduced copper coins called dam and gold coins called mohur weighing 169 grains (10.95 g). the rupee coinage continued under the Mughals to the same standard and weight, although heavier rupees were occasionally issued by some rulers after Akbar.
European powers began to mint coins as early as the mid-17th century century, under the patronage of the Mughal Empire. British gold coins were called Carolina, silver Anglina, copper Cupperoon, and tin Tinny. The coins of Bengal developed in the Mughal-era style and those of Madras mostly in the South Indian style. The English coins of West India developed following Mughal and English patterns. It was not until 1717 that the British obtained permission from Emperor Farrukh Siyar to mint Mughal coinage at the Bombay mint. By the early 1830s, the British had become the dominant power in India and began minting independently. The Coinage Act of 1835 provided for a uniform coinage throughout India. The new coins had the effigy of William IV on the obverse and the value on the reverse in English and Persian. Coins issued after 1840 bore the portrait of Queen Victoria. The first coin under the crown was issued in 1862 and in 1877 Queen Victoria assumed the title of Empress of India. The gold-silver ratio widened during 1870-1910. Unlike India, its colonial master, Great Britain, followed the gold standard.
The accession to the throne in 1911 of King-Emperor George V gave rise to the famous 'pig rupee'. On the coin, the King was shown wearing the chain of the Order of the Elephant of India. Because of a bad engraving, the elephant looked a lot like a pig. The Muslim population was outraged and the image had to be quickly redesigned. The acute shortage of silver during World War I led to the introduction of one rupee and two and a half rupee paper money. Lower denomination silver coins were issued in cupronickel. The compulsion of World War II led to experiments in coinage in which the standard rupee was substituted for the 'Quaternary Silver Alloy'. Quaternary silver coins were issued beginning in 1940. In 1947 they were replaced by pure nickel coins. Even after independence, British coinage continued in India. The monetary system remained unchanged at one Rupee which consisted of 64 pice, or 192 feet.
In India, the "Anna Series" it was introduced on August 15, 1950. This was the first coin of the Republic of India. The portrait of the King was replaced by the capital of the Lion of Ashoka. A sheaf of corn replaced the Tiger on the one Rupee coin. The monetary system was maintained with a Rupee made up of 16 Annas. The Indian Currency (Amendment) Act 1955, which came into force on 1 April 1957, introduced a 'decimal series'. The rupee was now divided into 100 "Paisa" instead of 16 Annas or 64 Pic. The coins "Naye Paise" they were minted in the denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 Naye Paise. Both the Anna series and the Naye Paise coins were around for some time. Beginning in 1968, new coins were called simply Paise instead of Naye Paise because they were no longer naye (new).
With the high inflation of the sixties, small denomination coins that were made of bronze, nickel-brass, cupronickel and aluminum-bronze were minted in aluminum. This change began with the introduction of the new 3 paise hexagonal coin. A twenty paise coin was introduced in 1968, but it did not gain much popularity. For a time, cost-benefit considerations led to the phasing out of the 1, 2, and 3 paise coins in the 1970s. Stainless steel 10, 25, and 50 paise coins were introduced in 1988, and a rupee in 1992. The high management costs of issuing 1, 2 and 5 rupee notes led to the gradual minting of these denominations in the 1990s.
East Africa, Arabia and Mesopotamia
In East Africa, Arabia, and Mesopotamia, the rupee and its subsidiary coinage were in use at various times. The use of the rupee in East Africa stretched from Somaliland in the north to southern Natal. In Mozambique, British Indies rupees were overstamped, and in Kenya, the British East Africa Company minted the rupee and its fractions, as well as the pike.
The rise in the price of silver immediately after World War I caused the rupee to rise in value to two shillings sterling. In 1920, in British East Africa, the opportunity was taken to introduce a new guilder coin, bringing the currency equated with the pound sterling. Soon after, the guilder was divided into two East African shillings. This assimilation to sterling did not occur, however, in British India itself. In Somalia, the Italian colonial authority coined the "rupee" with exactly the same pattern and called the "pice" "kiss".
The Indian rupee was the official currency of Dubai and Qatar until 1959, when India created a new Gulf rupee (also known as the "external rupee") to make gold smuggling more difficult. The Gulf rupee was legal tender until 1966, when India significantly devalued the Indian rupee and a new Qatari riyal was established to provide economic stability.
Straits Settlements
The Straits Settlements were originally an outlier entity of the British East India Company. The Spanish dollar had already prevailed in the Straits Settlements when the British arrived in the 19th century. The East India Company tried to introduce the rupee instead. These attempts were resisted by the locals, and in 1867, when the British government took over direct control of the Straits Settlements from the East India Company, attempts to introduce the rupee were finally abandoned.
Tibet
Until the middle of the 20th century, the official currency of Tibet was also known as the Tibetan rupee.
Name
The original silver rupee,.917 fine silver, 11.66 grams, was divided into 16 annas, 64 paisas, or 192 feet. Every circulating coin of British India, up to the decimalization of the rupee, had a different name in practice. One paisa was equal to two dhelas, three feet or six damaris. Other coins are half anna (adhanni, or two paisas), two anas (duanni), four anas (one chawanni, or a quarter of rupee), and eight anas (one athanni, or half rupee) were widely used until decimalization in 1961. (The numbers adha, do, chār, ātha respectively mean half, two, four and eight in Hindi and Urdu.) Two paisa was also called a taka, see below.
Decimalization occurred in India in 1957, in Pakistan in 1961, and in Sri Lanka in 1969. Since 1957, an Indian rupee has been divided into 100 paise. The decimalized paisa was originally officially called naya paisa, meaning "new paisa", to distinguish it from the old paisa, which had a higher value of 1⁄64 rupees. The word naya was dropped in 1964 and since then it has been known simply as paisa (plural paise).
The most commonly used symbol for the rupee is "₨". India adopted a new symbol (₹) for the Indian rupee on July 15, 2010. In most parts of India, the rupee is known as rupaya, rupaye or one of the other terms derived from the Sanskrit rūpya, which means silver.
Ṭaṅka is an old Sanskrit word for money. While the two-peso coin was called taka in West Pakistan, the word taka was commonly used in East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh), as an alternative to the rupee. In the Bengali and Assamese languages, spoken in Assam, Tripura and West Bengal, the rupee is known as taka, and is written as such on Indian banknotes. In Odisha it is known as tanka. After its independence, Bangladesh officially began calling its currency "taka" (BDT) in 1971.
The issuance of Indian currency is controlled by the Reserve Bank of India, and the issuance of Pakistani currency is controlled by the State Bank of Pakistan.
In India today (since 2010), the 50 paise (half rupee) coin is the lowest value legal tender. Coins of 1, 2, 5 and 10 rupees and notes of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 and 2000 rupees are commonly used for cash transactions.
Large denominations of rupees are traditionally counted in lakhs, crores, arabs, kharabs, nils, padmas, shankhs, udpadhas and anks. Terms beyond the crore are rarely used in the context of money; for example, an amount would be called ₨1 lakh crore (equivalent to 1 trillion) instead of ₨10 kharab.
Assessment
The original rupee was a coin made of silver, and weighed 178 grains, equal to 11.534 g. This coin was used ever since even during British Indian times, weighing 11.66 grams at 917‰ (0.917 pure silver).
The valuation of the rupee based on the silver standard brought consequences in the XIX century to the countries that used it, when the world's robust economies switched to the gold standard. The discovery of huge deposits of silver in the United States and in European colonies led to a decline in the relative value of silver with respect to gold. Thus, without expecting it, India found that it did not have much purchasing power to transact with the world. This moment is known as 'the fall of the rupee'.
Name
Formerly the rupee was divided into 16 annas, 64 paisas and 192 feet. That is to say that three feet were equivalent to a paisa and four of the latter to an anna. For short periods this British Indies rupee was also used in Arabia and East Africa as well as Australia in the early 19th century.
Decimalization took place in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in 1869, in India in 1957, and in Pakistan in 1961; With this, the rupee began to be divided into 100 paisas, which were called Naya-Paisa or New currency. This habit has been maintained since India became independent.
In many parts of India the currency is known as rupaye, rubai, or some other term derived from the Sanskrit rupya.
Symbols
Commonly Rs is used as the symbol for the rupee.
Since 2010, the symbol (₹) was adapted for the Indian currency.
The symbol ₨ is also used in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Mauritius.
For Indonesian rupiah, Rp is used
In parts of Bangladesh near India, rupees are called takas, with ৳ being their symbol and ৲ being their mark.
Fictitious uses
Rupees (Rupees) are the unit of currency in the video game series The Legend of Zelda, created by Nintendo. They are shown as translucent gems of different sizes and colors.
The rupee is the fictional currency used in the video game Far Cry 4.