History
The presence of the Dutch in Netherlands New Guinea had been a subject of disagreement ever since the treaty that negotiated the Dutch withdrawal from Indonesia in 1949. The Dutch were unwilling to cede to Indonesian control, preferring instead to establish a state of Papua. The Indonesians eventually broke off diplomatic relations with the Dutch, on 17 August 1960. Due to the Indonesians insurgency and confusion over the status of the province, the UN took control as West New Guinea under the authority of the United Nations Temporary Executive Authority on 1 October 1962. On 1 May 1963, UNTEA agreed that the province would be transferred to Indonesia, as Irian Barat (West Irian), a province of Indonesia.
By Presidential decree of Sukarno, on the day of May 1, 1963, the existing Netherlands New Guinean gulden was to be withdrawn, replaced at par, with government-issued coinage, government 1 and 2½ rupiah notes, with larger denomination notes to be issued by Bank Indonesia (the same division between government (aka treasury notes) and bank notes as existed for the Indonesian rupiah). Since the West Irian rupiah was replacing the gulden, which was a much stronger currency than the Indonesian rupiah, the Indonesian currency was not valid tender in Irian, in order to preserve the value of the Irian currency.
Hyperinflation in Indonesia (which due to the separate monetary policy and currency, did not afflict Irian, although inflation was certainly still present) had necessitated a 1000 to 1 devaluation of the national currency in December 1965. It was the intention of the Presidential decree of 13 December 1965 that the 'rupiah baru' (new rupiah) become the unified national currency of all of Indonesia, exchangeable for the Irian Barat rupiah at par. However, a subsequent decree of 15 September 1966 restored the validity of the Irian money, recalling the Indonesian rupiah from Indonesia.
The Indonesian rupiah only finally became legal tender in Irian on 18 February 1971. The existing Irian Barat money was exchangeable from May 1971 at the rate of 1 Irian Barat rupiah to 18.9 Indonesian rupiah. Thus given the official exchange rate of 378 Indonesian rupiah to 1 US$ at the time, it can be seen that the Irian Barat rupiah was ultimately worth exactly US$0.05. The Netherlands New Guinea gulden, fixed at par to the Dutch guilder, was exchangeable at 3.62 to the US dollar at the time of original conversion in 1963. Relative to the dollar therefore the currency had lost 82% of its value in 8 years.
The Irian Barat rupiah circulated alongside the Indonesian rupiah as legal tender, for a further two years, until 1 April 1973.
The rupiah is the official currency of Indonesia, issued and controlled by Bank Indonesia. Its name is derived from the Sanskrit word for silver, rupyakam (रूप्यकम्). Sometimes, Indonesians also informally use the word perak in referring to rupiah in coins. The rupiah is divided into 100 cents, although high inflation has rendered all coins and banknotes denominated in cents obsolete.
The Belgian franc was the currency of the Kingdom of Belgium from 1832 until 2002 when the euro was introduced. It was subdivided into 100 subunits, each known as a centiem in Dutch, or centime in French and German.
This article surveys the postage stamps and postal history of Western New Guinea, particularly in 1949–1963.
The Katangese franc, was the currency of the unrecognized State of Katanga between 1960 and 1963 during its brief period of independence from the Republic of the Congo. It replaced the Congolese franc at par and was consequently initially equal to the Belgian franc. This established an exchange rate of 50 francs = 1 U.S. dollar. Just before Katanga was re-annexed by Congo, the exchange rate had fallen to 195 francs = 1 U.S. dollar. The currency was replaced at par by the Congolese franc.
The guilder or florin was the currency of the Netherlands from 1434 until 2002, when it was replaced by the euro.
The Netherlands Antillean guilder is the currency of Curaçao and Sint Maarten, which until 2010 formed the Netherlands Antilles along with Bonaire, Saba, and Sint Eustatius. It is subdivided into 100 cents. The guilder was replaced on 1 January 2011 on the islands of Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius by the United States dollar.
The pataca was a monetary unit of account used in Portuguese Timor between 1894 and 1958, except for the period 1942–1945, when the occupying Japanese forces introduced the Netherlands Indies gulden and the roepiah. As in the case of the Macanese pataca which is still in use today, the East Timor unit was based on the silver Mexican dollar coins which were prolific in the wider region in the 19th century. These Mexican dollar coins were in turn the lineal descendants of the Spanish pieces of eight which had been introduced to the region by the Portuguese through Portuguese Malacca, and by the Spanish through the Manila Galleon trade.
The Netherlands Indies guilder was the unit of account of the Dutch East Indies from 1602 under the United East India Company, following Dutch practice first adopted in the 15th century. A variety of Dutch, Spanish and Asian coins were in official and common usage. After the collapse of the VOC at the end of the 18th century, control of the islands reverted to the Dutch government, which issued silver 'Netherlands Indies' guilder and fractional silver and copper coins until Indonesian independence in 1945.
The Netherlands Indies guilder, later the Netherlands Indies roepiah, was the currency issued by the Japanese occupiers in the Dutch East Indies between 1942 and 1945. It was subdivided into 100 cents and replaced the guilder at par.
The gulden was the currency of Dutch New Guinea until 1963. Until 1950, issues of the Netherlands Indies circulated. A separate currency came into being when West New Guinea became the only part of the Netherlands Indies to remain in Dutch control. The currency was fixed at parity with the Dutch gulden. It circulated until Dutch New Guinea became part of Indonesia as West Irian in 1963. That year, the West Irian rupiah replaced the gulden at par.
The Riau rupiah was a distinct currency of the Riau Archipelago between 1963 and 1964. It replaced the Malaya and British Borneo dollar at par and was replaced by the Indonesian rupiah at the rate of 1 Riau rupiah = 14.7 Indonesian rupiah.
The Malaya and British Borneo dollar was the currency of Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak, North Borneo, Brunei and the Riau archipelago from 1953 to 1967 and was the successor of the Malayan dollar and Sarawak dollar, replacing them at par. The currency was issued by the Board of Commissioners of Currency, Malaya and British Borneo. Prior to 1952, the board was known as the Board of Commissioners of Currency, Malaya.
Frans Kaisiepo was a Papuan politician and Indonesian nationalist. He served as the fourth Governor of Papua Province. In 1993, Kaisiepo was posthumously declared a National Hero of Indonesia for his lifelong efforts to unite West Irian with Indonesia. As the representative of Papua province, he was involved in the Malino Conference, where the formation of the United States of Indonesia was discussed.
United Nations Administered West New Guinea refers to the period between 1 October 1962 and 1 May 1963 when Western New Guinea was administered by the United Nations Temporary Executive Authority (UNTEA) in accordance with in article two of the New York Agreement reached between the governments of the Netherlands and Indonesia in August 1962.
The first coins of the Indonesian rupiah were issued in 1951 and 1952, a year or so later than the first Indonesian rupiah banknotes printed, following the peace treaty with the Netherlands in November 1949. Although revolutionary currency had been issued by the provisional Indonesian government between 1945 and 1949, it had all been formed of paper, for metal were too scarce for the internationally isolated government to use as currency.
The first banknotes used in the archipelago that would become Indonesia were those issued by the United East India Company, credit letters of the rijksdaalder dating between 1783 and 1811. Netherlands Indies gulden government credit paper followed in 1815, and from 1827 to 1842 and again from 1866 to 1948 gulden notes of De Javasche Bank. Lower denominations were issued by the government in 1919–1920 and in 1939–1940 due to wartime metal shortages, but otherwise day-to-day transactions were conducted using coinage.
Operation Trikora was a combined Soviet-Indonesian military operation which aimed to seize and annex the Dutch overseas territory of Netherlands New Guinea in 1961 and 1962. After negotiations, the Netherlands signed the New York Agreement with Indonesia on 15 August 1962, relinquishing control of Western New Guinea to the United Nations.
The currency of Indonesia, the rupiah, has a long history dating back to its colonial period. Due to periods of economic uncertainty and high inflation, the currency has been re-valued several times.
The West New Guinea dispute (1950–1962), also known as the West Irian dispute, was a diplomatic and political conflict between the Netherlands and Indonesia over the territory of Dutch New Guinea. While the Netherlands had ceded sovereignty over most of the Dutch East Indies to Indonesia on 27 December 1949 following an independence struggle, it retained control over its colony on the western half of New Guinea. The Indonesian government claimed this territory as well, on the basis that it had belonged to the Dutch East Indies and that the new Republic of Indonesia was the legitimate successor to the former Dutch colony.
Sultan Zainal Abidin Alting Syah was the 26th Sultan of Tidore in Maluku Islands, reigning from 1947 to 1967. He was also the appointed Governor of Irian Barat in 1956–1962 before the actual inclusion of Irian Barat in Indonesia, serving official Indonesian claims against Dutch colonial rule.
