Plural form of rupiah

In my letter to the editor on corruption What's the motive of corruption?, which you published on Jan 10, 2001, I wrote billions of rupiahs (the plural of rupiah) and millions of rupiahs (again the plural form). You have edited these into billions of rupiah (without s) and millions of rupiah (again without s).

With all due respect to your editing capabilities, I think both corrections are faulty, or are these typographical errors? By comparison, do we say millions of dollars or millions of dollar? Hundreds of books or hundreds of book? Can you enlighten me on this point?

This may be a small matter, but for me it is fundamental, because I teach English, and my colleagues or students who read my letter might think that I am sloppy.

RUDI WILSON

Bandung

Note: Both rupiahs and rupiah are correct (as plural form) after millions/billions of. The Post uses rupiah to be consistent with the style it has adopted.

--Editor