Bank Indonesia Confirms Criminal Penalties for Counterfeiters of Mutilated Currency
Jakarta — Bank Indonesia (BI) has reaffirmed that counterfeiting rupiah notes by combining counterfeit and genuine currency, or deliberately mutilating notes, carries criminal penalties and substantial fines.
Ramdan Denny Prakoso, Head of BI’s Communications Department, explained that mutilated currency refers to rupiah notes that have been deliberately damaged. Under Law Number 7 of 2011 on Currency, all Indonesian citizens are obliged to preserve rupiah notes as a symbol of national sovereignty.
“Mutilated currency falls within the category of deliberately damaged rupiah as defined in Article 25 Paragraph (1) of the Currency Law,” Prakoso stated. Such conduct is subject to criminal sanctions as outlined in Article 35 of the Currency Law.
The provision stipulates that any person who deliberately damages, cuts, destroys, or alters rupiah notes with the intent to diminish the honour of rupiah as a symbol of the state—including buying or selling already damaged or altered rupiah—may be imprisoned for up to five years and fined up to 1 billion rupiah.
Beyond criminal penalties, BI has also confirmed it will not provide replacement for damaged rupiah notes if there is evidence that the damage was deliberate. This requirement is established in Bank Indonesia Regulation (PBI) Number 21/10/PBI/2019 on the Management of Rupiah Currency.
Prakoso disclosed that intentional damage can be identified by several physical indicators. These include cuts made with sharp implements, partial or complete loss of security threads due to deliberate damage, relatively large quantities of currency exchanged with similar damage patterns, and discrepancies in serial numbers on a single note.
“In this regard, the public should be vigilant about whether there are cuts with similar damage patterns, as well as discrepancies between the serial number on the lower left side of the rupiah note and the serial number on the upper right side, and carefully identify the authentic characteristics of rupiah notes,” Prakoso said.