Nepalese Rupee Currency

Introduction

Nepalese Rupee is the unit of currency and is the medium of exchange in Asian Continent. This is a Sanskrit word meaning silver coins that were the source of origin for acquiring the word rupee.

The Nepalese Rupee is abbreviated as Rs and is subdivided with unit as paisa. This is the official currency since 1932 and maintains a fixed peg to Indian rupee @ 1.6 Nepalese rupees = 1 INR. The currency code for Nepalese Rupee is NPR and the numeric code is 524.

Pre-republic note

In 1951, the introduced notes were 1, 5, 10 and 100 rupees by the government, with the name mohru in Nepalese. In 1956, the State Bank took over note issuance and the second issue came with the name rupee in the Nepalese texts. The 500 and 1000 rupees notes also followed in 1972 and later in 1974 50 rupees and 2 rupees in 1981.

The 1 rupee notes have been discontinued, but are yet in circulation. In 1982, 20 rupees notes were introduced and 1 and 2 rupee notes production was stopped. In 1997, 25 and 250 rupee notes for the silver Jubilee commemoration of Birendra Bir Bikram Shah were produced.

Banknote structure

The Nepalese currency is subdivided into 100 paisa and the paper currency is in 9 denominations. The banknotes have face value Re1, Rs.2, 5,10,20,50,100,500 and 1000. They are in circulation, but are not produced.

The banknotes play a significant role as they assist in promoting the culture with images such as beautiful landscapes, temples, ruling king portraits and unique animals. They reveal a good link of culture, besides the currency notes display the Dashain festival that has a custom of giving new banknotes. The notes front side has Devangri script and on the back side is English. The notes can be differentiated based on the color schemes.

The front side has the ruling king picture on the left side of the note and the backsides have temple pictures, animals, royal palace, and come in different colors making identification simple.

The Nepalese coinage is in denominations 25 and 50 paisa, Re.1, Rs.2, 5 and 10. These coins are less in circulation and majority transactions are in banknotes. The coins are in Devangri script and have their face values on the front side with numerals. The central bank controls the Nepalese rupee and the flow of currency.