Pakistani rupee

Pakistani Rupee پاکستانی روپیہ (Urdu)
1000-rupee note Coins of various denominations
ISO 4217 code	PKR
Official user(s)	Pakistan
Unofficial user(s)	Afghanistan along with the US Dollar[1]
Inflation	14.8%
Source	Federal Bureau of Statistics, April 2009
Subunit
1/100	paisa (not used)
Symbol	Rs
Coins
Freq. used	1, 2, 5 rupees
Banknotes
Freq. used	10, 20, 50, 100, 500, 1000, 5000 rupees
Central bank	State Bank of Pakistan
Website	www.sbp.org.pk

The rupee (Urdu: روپیہ ) (sign: Rs; code: PKR) is the currency of Pakistan. The issuance of the currency is controlled by the State Bank of Pakistan, the central bank of the country. The most commonly used symbol for the rupee is Rs, used on receipts when purchasing goods and services. In Pakistan, the rupee is referred to as the "rupees", "rupaya" or "rupaye". As standard in Pakistani English, large values of rupees are counted in terms of thousands, lakh (100 thousand, in digits 100,000) and crore (10 million, in digits 10,000,000).

History

Main article: History of the rupee

The origin of the word "rupee" is found in the Sanskrit word rūp or rūpā, which means "silver" in many Indo-Aryan languages. The Sanskrit word rūpyakam (रूप्यक) means coin of silver. The derivative word Rūpaya was used to denote the coin introduced by Sher Shah Suri during his reign from 1540 to 1545 CE.

The Pakistani rupee was put into circulation after the country became independent from the British Rule in 1947. For the first few months of independence, Pakistan used Indian coins and notes with "Pakistan" stamped on them. New coins and banknotes were issued in 1948. Like the Indian rupee, it was originally divided into 16 annas (آن), each of 4 pice (پيس) or 12 pie (پاى). The currency was decimalised on 1 January 1961, with the rupee subdivided into 100 pice, renamed (in English) paise (singular paisa) later the same year. However, coins denominated in paise have not been issued since 1994.

Coins

In 1948, coins were introduced in denominations of 1 pice, ½, 1 and 2 annas, ¼, ½ and 1 rupee. 1 pie coins were added in 1951. In 1961, coins for 1, 5 and 10 pice were issued, followed later the same year by 1 paisa, 5 and 10 paise coins. In 1963, 10 and 25 paise coins were introduced, followed by 2 paise the next year. 1 rupee coins were reintroduced in 1979, followed by 2 rupees in 1998 and 5 rupees in 2002. 2 paise coins were last minted in 1976, with 1 paisa coins ceasing production in 1979. The 5, 10, 25 and 50 paise all ceased production in 1994. There are two variations of 2 rupee coins; most have clouds above the Badshahi Masjid but many don't have. This is noted by very few people. The one and two rupee coins were changed to aluminium in 2007^[2]

Currently Circulating Coins
Depiction (Front)	Depiction (Back)	Value	Year in Use	Composition	Front Illustration	Back Illustration
		Rs. 1	1998 – present	Bronze and Aluminium	Quaid-e-Azam, Muhammad Ali Jinnah	Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar Mausoleum, Sehwan Shareef
		Rs. 2	1998 – present	Brass and Aluminium	Crescent and Star	Badshahi Masjid, Lahore
		Rs. 5	2002 – present	Cupro-nickel	Crescent and Star	Number "5"
For table standards, see the coin specification table.

Banknotes

Pakistani Rupee – Various denominations

In 1947, provisional issues of banknotes were made, consisting of Government of India and Reserve Bank of India notes for 1, 2, 5, 10 and 100 rupees overprinted with the text "Government of Pakistan" in English and Urdu. Regular government issues commenced in 1948 in denominations of 1, 5, 10 and 100 rupees. The government continued to issue 1 rupee notes until the 1980s but other note issuing was taken over by the State Bank in 1953, when 2, 5, 10 and 100 rupees notes were issued. Only a few 2 rupees notes were issued. 50 rupees notes were added in 1957, with 2 rupees notes reintroduced in 1985. In 1986, 500 rupees notes were introduced, followed by 1000 rupees the next year. 2 and 5 rupees notes were replaced by coins in 1998 and 2002. 20 rupee notes were added in 2005, followed by 5000 rupees in 2006.

All banknotes other than the 1 and 2 rupees feature a portrait of Muhammad Ali Jinnah on the obverse along with writing in Urdu. The reverses of the banknotes vary in design and have English text. The only Urdu text found on the reverse is the Urdu translation of the Prophetic Hadith, "Seeking honest livelihood is worship of God."

The banknotes vary in size and colour, with larger denominations being longer than smaller ones. All contain multiple colours. However, each denomination does have one colour which predominates. All banknotes feature a watermark for security purposes. On the larger denomination notes, the watermark is a picture of Jinnah, while on smaller notes, it is a crescent and star. Different types of security threads are also present in each banknote.

Banknotes before the 2005 Series[3]
Image		Value	Dimensions	Main Colour	Description – Reverse	Status
Obverse	Reverse
		Rs. 1	95 × 66 mm	Brown	Tomb of Muhammad Iqbal in Lahore	No longer in Circulation
		Rs. 2	109 × 66 mm	Purple	Badshahi Masjid in Lahore
		Rs. 5	127 × 73 mm	Burgundy	Khojak Tunnel in Balochistan
		Rs. 10	141 × 73 mm	Green	Mohenjo-daro in Larkana District	No longer printed – Still in Circulation
		Rs. 50	154 × 73 mm	Purple and Red	Alamgiri Gate of the Lahore Fort in Lahore
		Rs. 100	165 × 73 mm	Red and Orange	Islamia College in Peshawar
		Rs. 500	175 × 73 mm	Green, tan, red, and orange	The State Bank of Pakistan in Islamabad
		Rs. 1000	175 × 73 mm	Blue	Tomb of Jahangir in Lahore
These images are to scale at 0.7 pixels per millimetre. For table standards, see the banknote specification table.

The State Bank has started a new series of banknotes, phasing out the older designs for new, more secure ones.

2005 Series[4]
Image		Value	Dimensions	Main Colour	Description		Period
Obverse	Reverse				Obverse	Reverse
		Rs. 5	115 x 65 mm	Greenish Grey	Muhammad Ali Jinnah	Gwadar port, which is a mega project in Balochistan (Pakistan)	8 July 2008 – 31 December 2011
		Rs. 10	115 × 65 mm	Green		Bab ul Khyber which is the entrance to the Khyber Pass, Khyber Agency, FATA	27 May 2006 – present
		Rs. 20	123 × 65 mm	Orange Green		Mohenjo-daro in Larkana District	22 March 2008 – present
		Rs. 50	131 x 65 m.m.	Purple		K2, second highest mountain of the world in northern areas of Pakistan	8 July 2008 – present
		Rs. 100	139 × 65 mm	Red		Quaid-e-Azam Residency in Ziarat	11 November 2006 – present
		Rs. 500	147 × 65 mm	Rich Deep Green		Badshahi Masjid in Lahore
		Rs. 1000	155 × 65 mm	Dark blue		Islamia College in Peshawar	26 February 2007 – present
		Rs. 5000	163 × 65 mm	Mustard		Faisal Masjid in Islamabad	27 May 2006 – present
These images are to scale at 0.7 pixels per millimetre. For table standards, see the banknote specification table.

(*Recently the State Bank revised the Rs.20/- banknote, after complaints of its similarity to the Rs.5000/-, which caused a lot of confusion and financial losses, when people gave out Rs.5000/- notes, thinking them to be Rs.20/- notes)

Hajj banknotes

Due to the large number of pilgrims to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during the 1950s, the State Bank of Pakistan provided simple exchange facilities for Hajj pilgrims. The issue of special notes for the express use of the pilgrims was introduced. Although other means of exchange were considered, the high level of illiteracy amongst the pilgrims and the additional costs that would be incurred through the need to purchase such means prevented the government from these methods of exchange. The State Bank Order to allow the issue of these "Hajj notes" was made in May 1950.

The use of Hajj notes continued until 1978. Until this date, stocks of notes were used without the necessity of printing new notes with the signatures of the later Governors. It is believed that, once the use of Hajj Notes was discontinued, most of the remaining stock of notes was destroyed. However, a large quantity of notes did find their way into the collector market following their sale to a bank note dealer by the State Bank of Pakistan.

Hajj banknotes of Pakistan
Image		Value	Main Colour	Description – Reverse	Date of usage
Obverse	Reverse
		Rs. 10	Dark purple	Shalamar Gardens in Lahore	1960–1969
		Rs. 10	Dark blue	Mohenjo-daro in Larkana	1970–1976
		Rs. 100	Dark orange	Islamia College (Peshawar)	1970–1976
For table standards, see the banknote specification table.

Special banknote

Special banknote on 50th Independent celebrations of Pakistan
Image		Value	Main Colour	Description – Reverse	Date of usage
Obverse	Reverse
		Rs. 5	Dark purple	Baha-ud-din Zakariya Tomb Multan	1997-onwards
For table standards, see the banknote specification table.

Exchange rate

US Dollar-Pakistani Rupee exchange rate

The Rupee was pegged to the British Pound until 1982, when the government of General Zia-ul-Haq changed it to managed float. As a result, the rupee devalued by 38.5% between 1982/83 and 1987/88 and the cost of importing raw material increased rapidly, causing huge pressure on Pakistan finances and damaging much of the industrial base built up by ZA government. The Pakistani rupee depreciated against the US dollar until the turn of the century, when Pakistan's large current-account surplus pushed the value of the rupee up versus the dollar. Pakistan's central bank then stabilised the exchange rate by lowering interest rates and buying dollars, in order to preserve the country's export competitiveness. The year 2008 has been termed a disastrous year for the rupee as until August 2008 it had lost 23% of its value since December, 2007 to a record low of 79.2 against US Dollar.^[5] The major reasons for this depreciation a huge current and trade accounts deficits had been built up since the credit boom in pakistan post 2002. Due to rising militancy in the NWFP and FATA areas FDI began to fall and the structural problems of the balance of payment where exposed, a disastrous situation occurred where Foreign Reserves fell to as low as 2 billion US dollars. However by February 2011 Forex reserves had recovered at set a new record of 17 billion dollars. Of the 17 Bllion USD forex >10 Billion is borrowed money and Interest applicable which will start to move out of Pakistan in next 2–3 months. Eventually the Pakistani rupee will start trading at 80 per US$.

Current PKR exchange rates
From Google Finance:	AUD CAD CHF EUR GBP HKD JPY USD
From Yahoo! Finance:	AUD CAD CHF EUR GBP HKD JPY USD
From OzForex:	AUD CAD CHF EUR GBP HKD JPY USD
From XE.com:	AUD CAD CHF EUR GBP HKD JPY USD
From OANDA.com:	AUD CAD CHF EUR GBP HKD JPY USD

See also

	Pakistan portal
	Numismatics portal

• Economy of Pakistan

Notes

1. ^ The Afghan afghani is the official currency, but the US$ and the Pakistani rupee are widely accepted.
2. ^ http://worldcoinnews.blogspot.com/search/label/pakistan Accessed 8 January 2008
3. ^ "Banknotes and Coins Under Circulation" (PDF). State Bank of Pakistan. http://www.sbp.org.pk/BankNotes/BankNotes_Features.pdf. Retrieved 17 September 2008. 
4. ^ "Pakistan's Banknotes". State Bank of Pakistan. 8 July 2008. http://www.sbp.org.pk/BankNotes/banknotes.htm. Retrieved 17 September 2008. 
5. ^ "Pakistan rupee falls to new low". BBC News. 15 August 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7563443.stm. Retrieved 17 September 2008. 

External links

• SBP's webpage on the newnotes
• Pakistan Bank Notes
• Business Recorder: Pakistan's first financial newspaper
• State Bank to issue Rs.5000/- and New Rs.10/- Banknotes from 27 May 2006: Governor
• The Haj Notes of Pakistan
• Haseeb Naz's collection on coins used in Pakistan