Exhibition shows money matters

Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

When society invented formal currency, a new line of business also sprung up, that of the counterfeit money. A Money Fair held at Bank Indonesia's Artha Suaka Museum revealed that the business was already thriving in the 14th century Buton Kingdom.

It appears that during the rule of Ratu Bulawambona of the Southeast Sulawesi kingdom, princesses of the royal family annually changed the design of the cloth they used for formal currency to prevent the money being counterfeited.

The cloth currency, called Kampua or Bida, was shown at the exhibition as a piece of yellowing rough fabric with veins of blue thread running through it.

Another exhibit showed counterfeited banknotes found in recent decades, the earliest being Rp 1,000 and Rp 500 notes from 1946.

So how can a layman differentiate the real deal and the counterfeit? At the Money Fair, held in commemoration of the central bank's 50th anniversary, visitors are also taught the difference, with the naked eye, using a simple ultraviolet ray device, as well as Bank Indonesia (BI)'s sophisticated machinery.

"The machine is used by the bank for its research into counterfeit banknotes," an official in charge explained, adding that it monitors the level of sophistication of modern counterfeiters.

Simply using the naked eye, a counterfeit note can be distinguished by the difference in the sharpness and color of the graphics, the multilayered latent images, as well as the changes in optical variable ink (OVI).

"There should be a BI logo and a picture of a violin on the 50,000 rupiah note, and the golden BI logo on the bottom right corner should change to a greenish hue when seen at a different angle," the official explained.

Besides the exhibits on counterfeit notes, the Money Fair also showcased the role of money in Indonesian society through the ages.

Also on display are the banknotes that were printed in the regions in response to a shortage of hard currency following the Dutch Aggressions in 1947 and 1948. The first banknote printed by the newly established Bank Indonesia in 1953 is on display, as well as the 1957 devaluation cutting banknotes above Rp 500 to 10 percent of their original value in which two zeros were crossed out on the banknote.

The present Bank Indonesia had started off as a private Dutch bank De Javansche Bank NV, established in 1828, and become nationalized through a document in Dutch signed by de President van de Republik Indonesia Soekarno, and de Minister van financien Sumitro Djojohadikusumo on May 19, 1953.

Photographs of the bank during its earlier days as De Javansche Bank are also on display.

And finally, a model of the proposed Bank Indonesia Museum is displayed --an ongoing project to transform the old De Javansche Bank building in the Kota area into a museum chronicling the bank's history.

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Bank Indonesia's Money Fair is open to the public until Aug. 29, 2003, at Ruang Chandra on the sixth floor of Bank Indonesia Kebon Sirih Building, Jl. Kebon Sirih 82-84, Central Jakarta. For more information call 021-3817701.