Nepali Rupee
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The Nepalese rupee (;
sign A sign is an object, quality, event, or entity whose presence or occurrence indicates the probable presence or occurrence of something else. A natural sign bears a causal relation to its object—for instance, thunder is a sign of storm, or me ...
: रु;
code In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communicati ...
: NPR) is the official
currency A currency is a standardization of money in any form, in use or circulation as a medium of exchange, for example banknotes and coins. A more general definition is that a currency is a ''system of money'' in common use within a specific envi ...
and
legal tender Legal tender is a form of money that Standard of deferred payment, courts of law are required to recognize as satisfactory payment in court for any monetary debt. Each jurisdiction determines what is legal tender, but essentially it is anything ...
of
Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...
. It is also sometimes abbreviated as N₨ or Re./Rs. informally. The rupee is subdivided into 100
paisa Paisa (also transliterated as ''pice'', ''pesa'', ''poysha'', ''poisha'' and ''baisa'') is a monetary unit in several countries. The word is also a generalised idiom for money and wealth. In India, Nepal, and Pakistan, the ''paisa'' currently equa ...
, although coins of lower denominations are rarely used today. It is issued and regulated by the
Nepal Rastra Bank The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB; ) was established on April 26, 1956 A.D. (Nepali Date: Baisakh 14, 2013 B.S.) under the Nepal Rastra Bank Act, 1955, to discharge the central banking responsibilities including guiding the development of the embryonic ...
, the central bank of Nepal. The Nepalese rupee was introduced in 1932, replacing the silver-based
mohar The Mohur is a gold coin that was formerly minted by several governments, including British India and some of the princely states which existed alongside it, the Mughal Empire, Maratha Empire, Kingdom of Nepal, and Persia (chiefly Afghanistan) ...
at a rate of 2 mohar = 1 rupee. Since 1994, it has been officially pegged to the
Indian rupee The Indian rupee (symbol: ₹; code: INR) is the official currency of India. The rupee is subdivided into 100 '' paise'' (Hindi plural; singular: ''paisa''). The issuance of the currency is controlled by the Reserve Bank of India. The Reserve ...
at a rate of रु1.60 = ₹1, having previously been pegged at रु1.45 = ₹1. , the Nepalese rupee is accepted for domestic transactions only within Nepal and is not legally circulated outside its borders. Foreign exchange is regulated by the central bank and subject to strict limits.


History

The rupee was introduced in 1932, replacing the silver
mohar The Mohur is a gold coin that was formerly minted by several governments, including British India and some of the princely states which existed alongside it, the Mughal Empire, Maratha Empire, Kingdom of Nepal, and Persia (chiefly Afghanistan) ...
at a rate of 2 mohar = 1 rupee. At first, the rupee was called the ''Mohru'' in Nepali.


The "Bullet paisa"

In 1955, 4 Paisa coins were minted, made from rifle cartridge cases from
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
that were used by the
Gurkha The Gurkhas or Gorkhas (), with the endonym Gorkhali ( Nepali: गोर्खाली ), are soldiers native to the Indian subcontinent, chiefly residing within Nepal and some parts of North India. The Gurkha units consist of Nepali and ...
soldiers who fought against the Imperial Japanese in the Pacific. The coins were produced by removing the primer from the cases and the cases were then converted into the 4 Paisa coins to commemorate the Gurkha's courage and victory during the war. Due to the small number of cases found, these coins were minted for one year only. They are known as the "Nepal Bullet Paisa".


1972–2007

During King Birendra’s rule, one can also distinguish between two major series of banknotes. The first series features the king wearing the military uniform while on the notes of the second series the king is wearing the traditional Nepalese crown adorned with feathers of the bird of paradise. During this period regular banknotes of 2 and 20 rupees and special banknotes of 25 and 250 rupees were issued for the first time. The legends found on the last issues of Gyanendra revert to Nepal ''sarkar'' ("Nepalese government"), thus omitting the reference to the king.


2007–Present

In October 2007, a 500-''rupee'' note was issued on which the king's portrait was replaced by
Mount Everest Mount Everest (), known locally as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet, is Earth's highest mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at it ...
. This reflects the historic change from a monarchy to a republic which took place in May 2008 in Nepal. Further notes of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 and 1000 rupees with Mount Everest and without reference to the king in their legends followed in 2008. The first issues of the 500- and 1000-rupee notes were printed on paper which still had the king's crowned portrait as a watermark in the "window" on the right part of the face of the notes. It was decided to print a red Rhododendron flower (Nepal's national flower) on top of the watermark. Notes of these denominations which were issued in 2009 and thereafter are printed on paper which has a Rhododendron flower as watermark instead of the royal portrait and were therefore released without the additional overprint in red.


Banknotes

On 17 September 1945, the government introduced
banknotes A banknote or bank notealso called a bill (North American English) or simply a noteis a type of paper money that is made and distributed ("issued") by a bank of issue, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued by commer ...
for 5, 10 and 100 rupees, with the name mohru used in Nepalese. There are also 250-rupee notes commemorating the
Silver Jubilee Silver Jubilee marks a 25th anniversary. The anniversary celebrations can be of a wedding anniversary, the 25th year of a monarch's reign or anything that has completed or is entering a 25-year mark. Royal Silver Jubilees since 1750 Note: This ...
of Birendra Bir Bikram Shah in 1997. Since 2007, Nepalese rupee banknotes have been produced by
Perum Peruri The Moneyprinting Public Corporation of the Republic of Indonesia (), trading as Peruri (stylized in all caps), is an Indonesian statutory corporation which acts as the country's banknote printer, national mint, and government systems integrat ...
, the mint company of
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
. In 2012, Nepal Rastra Bank issued a revised banknote series that is similar to the 2007 series, but now include inscriptions in English and the year of issue on the back.


Exchange rates

Between 1857 and 1930, the Nepalese rupee (two half-rupees or mohars) was fixed at 1.28 per Indian rupee. After this period, its value fluctuated against the Indian rupee, falling to रु1.60 = ₹1 in 1939, rising to रु0.60 = ₹1 during the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
and falling again afterwards. In 1952, the government of Nepal officially pegged the Nepalese rupee at रु1.28 = ₹1, although the market rate remained at रु1.60 = ₹1. Between 1955 and 1957, there was a series of soft peg revaluations that started at रु1.755 = ₹1 and appreciated to रु1.305 = ₹1 by 1957. In 1958, the government applied a new exchange rate of रु1.505 = ₹1 for the purchase of plane tickets only. A hard peg of रु1.60 = ₹1 was instituted in 1960, which was revalued to रु1.0155 = ₹1 when the Indian rupee was sharply devalued on 6 June 1966. The Indian rupee ceased to be legal tender in Nepal in 1966. From 1967 to 1975, the government pegged the Nepalese rupee against the Indian rupee, the US dollar and gold, starting at रु1.35 = ₹1, रु10.125 = US$1 and रु1 = 0.08777g gold. By the time the gold peg was removed in 1978, the exchange rate was रु1.39075 = ₹1, रु12.50 = $1 and रु1 = 0.0808408g gold. In 1983, the Nepali rupee's anchor was changed to a trade-weighted basket of currencies, which in practice amounted to a hard peg against the Indian rupee. This remained until 1993, when the peg was officially set at रु1.60 = ₹1.


See also

*
Crore Crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes the quantity ten million (107) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. In many international contexts, the decimal quantity is formatted as 10,000,000, but when used in the context of the India ...
*
Economy of Nepal The economy of Nepal is a developing category and is largely dependent on agriculture and remittances. Until the mid-20th century Nepal was an isolated pre-industrial society, which entered the modern era in 1951 without schools, hospitals, ...
* Coinage of Nepal


References


Sources

* * * Agrawal (Giriya), Shyam and Gyawali, Kamal Prasad: Notes and Coins of Nepal. Nepal Rastra Bank Golden Jubilee Year 2005–06, Kathmandu, 2006. * Bertsch, Wolfgang: "The Legends on the Banknotes of Nepal", ''International Banknote Society (IBNS) Journal'', vol. 48, no. 3, 2009, p. 39–44. * Jha, Hari Jaya: An Overview of Nepalese Paper Money. Manjeeta Jha, Lalitpur (Patan), B.S. 2058 (= A.D. 2001). * Lorenzoli, Giovanni: "Nepali artistic buildings as seen on Nepali notes". Journal of the International Banknote Society, vol. 43, no. 3 (2004), p. 6–14. * Shrestha, Ramesh: Nepalese Coins & Bank Notes (1911 to 1955). Kazi Mudhusudan Raj Bhandary, Kathmandu, 2007. * Wittmann, Hans: Die Banknoten des Königreichs Nepal. Unpublished, Wiesbaden, 2002.


Further reading

* {{Authority control 1932 establishments in Nepal Currencies introduced in 1932 Rupee, Nepalese Fixed exchange rate Currencies of Asia Circulating currencies Rupee