Burmese rupee

The rupee was the currency of Burma (now Myanmar) between 1852 and 1952, except for the years 1943-1945.

History

When Burma was conquered by the British, the Indian rupee replaced the kyat at par. From 1897, the government of India issued notes in Rangoon of the same general type as were issued in India but featuring languages used in Burma rather than those of India. In 1917 and again from 1927, Indian notes were overprinted for use in Burma. When Burma became a separate colony in 1937, a separate issue of paper money was made for use only in Burma but no separate coinage was issued.

When the Japanese invaded Burma in 1942, they introduced a new currency: the rupee, divided into 100 cents. This currency was only issued in paper form. The rupee was replaced by the kyat in 1943. In 1945, the Japanese occupation currency was declared worthless and Burma reverted to using Indian coinage and its own rupee paper money.

Following independence in 1948, Burma introduced its own rupee currency, consisting of coins and banknotes. One rupee was divided into 16 pe (equal to the Indian anna), each of 4 pyas (equal to the Indian pice). The rupee was replaced by the kyat in 1952 at par.

Coins

In 1949, coins were introduced in denominations of 2 pya, 1, 2, 4 and 8 pe. They matched the size and compositions of the Indian ½, 1 and 2 annas and ¼ and ½ rupee.

Banknotes

Between 1897 and 1922, notes for 5, 10 and 100 rupees were issued which differed from the Indian notes only in the...
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