Malaysia is a country in the southeastern part of Asia. It occupies part of the Malay Peninsula and the island of Borneo. The capital of Malaysia is Kuala Lumpur.
At different times, the official currency of Malaysia had different names. This is due to various historical conditions for the development of the country's economy. Since 1975, it has been called ringgit. This word itself is an outdated concept, which is translated from the Malay language as "cogged". This term was originally used to refer to the serrated edges of silver Spanish dollars. The currency symbol of Malaysia is RM, the currency code is MYR, the ringgit itself is divided into 100 units (cents). The names used are 5, 10, 20, 50 sen for coins and RM1, RM5, RM10, RM20, RM50, RM100 - for banknotes.
Background to Malaysian money
Since the sixteenth century, Malaysia, which at that time was part of the European colonial powers, used Spanish dollars. In 1837, the Spanish silver dollar was replaced by the Indian rupee. In 1903, a new one appeared in Malaysia that corresponded to two shillings of the British pound sterling. And only in 1967 the central bank - Bank Negara Malaysia - introduced the ringgit, which was originally declared as the Malaysian dollar. Until that date, the official currency was the dollar, which was also used by Singapore and Brunei.
The emergence of new money in Malaysia
When the ringgit replaced the dollar of Malaya and British Borneo at its face value, it retained all the values of its predecessor, with the exception of the face value of $ 10,000. In addition, similar color schemes were even used. Malaysia's new money, which was initially pegged to 8.57 US dollars instead of the British pound, was not affected by the devaluation of the pounds a few months later, while old banknotes still pegged to the British pound fell to 85 cents per dollar.
In 1968, $ 1,000 bills were introduced, and this was the first banknote to depict Tuanca Abdul Rahman, the first Jan di Pertuan Agong (elected monarch) of Malaysia, and the signature of Tun Ismail bin Mohamed Ali, the first head of Bank Negara Malaysia "(Central Bank of Malaysia).
Official acceptance
The money interchangeability agreement connecting the three countries (Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei) meant that the Malaysian dollar was exchanged on a par with Singapore and the dollar in Brunei. When Malaysia withdrew from the monetary union in 1973, the value of the new currency was no longer interchangeable for Singapore or Brunei money. Shortly afterwards, in 1975, the Malay names “ringgit” and “sen” were adopted as official. However, the symbol "RM" was introduced much later, in 1993, to replace the dollar sign, or "$".
Due to the low demand for banknotes with a face value of 1 ringgit in Malaysia, they were no longer printed and in 1993 were replaced by RM1 coins. In 1996, Malaysia strengthened measures against counterfeiting money by adding an additional hologram to larger banknotes in denominations of 50 and 100 ringgit.
1997 Asian financial crisis
When the Asian financial crisis reached Malaysia in 1997, a lot of money was taken out of the country. As a result, the issuance of banknotes RM500 and RM1000 was discontinued, and in 1999 they ceased to be legal tender. To avoid fluctuations in the local currency after the crisis, the Central Bank used a dirty floating rate to protect Malaysian money.
This regime continued until July 1997, when Bank Negara Malaysia refused to maintain the exchange rate of ringgit after the Asian crisis. Since September 2, 1998, for the purpose of stabilization, it has been pegged to the US dollar in accordance with $ 1 = RM3.8010.
Currently, the Malaysian ringgit to dollar rate is 4.16 ringgit per $ 1. At the same time, this currency is rather unstable. The dynamics of change is due to various factors. In particular, this can be seen by how the Malaysian ringgit to ruble exchange rate has changed over the past year.
Changes in turnover
In 2004, Bank Negara Malaysia issued a new RM10 banknote with additional security features, including a holographic band previously used only on RM50 and RM100 banknotes. A new banknote with a transparent window was also issued. Due to the low demand for coins in 2005, coins of 1 ringgit were withdrawn from circulation. This was also done to prevent counterfeiting and ensure standardization of this coin (two different versions of the second series coin were issued). In early 2008, the Bank issued a new banknote RM50.
Coins
Chasing small money in Malaysia consisted of three stages. The first stage was held in 1967, when coins of 1, 5, 10, 20 and 50 sen were introduced. A coin of 1 ringgit value was introduced and distributed four years later. They were made of a copper-nickel alloy; they depicted the state flag of Malaysia.
The second series of coins was developed by Low & Keng and released in 1989. Their design was completely different from previously manufactured. They were made from an alloy of copper, zinc and tin. On them were images of objects that represented Malaysian culture. Most coins issued in these two series are no longer in circulation.
The third series of coins was minted at the Negara Bank's mint and was delivered by Poogsan Corporation of South Korea as a directive from Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Donald in 2011. At this time, coins were used in denominations of 5, 10, 20 and 50 sen.
Banknotes
They were released in Malaysia in four series. In the first series of 1967, banknotes of 1, 5, 10, 50, 100 and 1000 dollars were issued. Many years later, in 1993, the second series involved replacing one-dollar banknote with a coin. In 1999, the release of the Malaysian ringgit of RM 500 and RM 1000 was discontinued.
In the third series, projects of issued banknotes were created in accordance with the vision of Malaysia as an independent industrial state, which it should become by 2020. These banknotes are currently in use and are designated as RM1, RM5, RM10, RM20, RM50 and RM100.
RM50 is the only banknote that stands out from everyone else since it was issued to commemorate the Commonwealth Games held in Malaysia in 1998.
Interesting Facts
Sometimes the Malays themselves still call their money the dollar. Therefore, when talking, you can often hear the price, for example, ten dollars, which in fact will mean ten ringgit of Malaysia. However, local residents do not consider this a mistake.
Until now, the old coin 1 Sep remains in circulation.
In 2008, a rounding mechanism was introduced (when prices on the general account of any purchase were rounded to the nearest Sep 5) as a measure aimed at excluding a coin of Sep 1 from circulation.
However, despite this, these coins, as well as denominations of 1 ringgit, are still used as legal tender, but only for payments whose amount does not exceed two ringgit. Although the seller is likely to be angry and may even refuse to accept the money. So it might be better to exchange them at your nearest bank.
On the new Malaysian money is already a new signature of the head of the Bank Negara Malaysia. They are signed by Zeti Aziz, it belongs to the former head of Negara Bank, who held this position for 16 years. This term is only the second longest after Thun Ismail Mohd Ali, who served 18 years from 1962 to 1980, although the average term in this position is about five years.
The current rate of the Malaysian ringgit to the ruble is 15.76 rubles per 1 MYR.