The Gulden Symbol, Read as Rupiah

Among the 111 pawnshop manuscripts studied, one detail proved particularly intriguing: the notation of loan values as f1 (one rupiah), f10 (ten rupiah), and f100 (one hundred rupiah). The symbol f represents the Dutch East Indies Gulden. The question that arose was why the scribes read it as rupiah. Initially, I assumed this was merely the individual style of a scribe. However, this assumption was disproven when manuscripts from different locations and different scribes consistently used the Gulden symbol but paired it with the word rupiah. A second assumption was that the scribes converted the term to rupiah because, as indigenous people, they only recognised the rupiah. These assumptions were built when I was only dealing with the manuscripts themselves, without knowing the history of the currency or having seen the actual Dutch East Indies Gulden coins. This curiosity led me beyond the world of manuscripts. Thanks to a reference provided by Ifkar Fikri, an alumnus of Andalas University’s History programme, I gained insight into this currency’s background. The Gulden currency was introduced in Indonesia in the early 19th century, shortly after the Dutch reclaimed the East Indies from the British. It officially came into use in 1817 when the Dutch East Indies government enacted the Coinage Act, replacing the previous currency, the Java Rupee, which had been the official currency during the British interregnum. The new currency, symbolised by ‘f’, quickly became the primary medium of exchange. However, according to Kristaniarsi, in daily life, the public more frequently used the word rupiah. This equivalence between the Gulden and the term rupiah was also formalised by the colonial government in early 1832 with the issuance of copper certificates. These paper notes featured Dutch text alongside Javanese and Arabic Pegon scripts in the Malay language. It was on these copper certificates that the word rupiah first appeared in writing as the equivalent of Gulden on a currency. Etymologically, rupiah is traced back to Sanskrit, referring to wrought silver. Another opinion suggests it derives from rupya, referring to silver coins brought by Indian traders to the archipelago. Other sources point to the influence of rupia, a term for silver coins used during the Mongol Empire. Both terms ultimately originate from Sanskrit. The term rupiah is also related to the words rupee and rufiyaa. The writing style adopted by the community involved writing the nominal value first, followed by its pronunciation in rupiah. For example, f1 (one rupiah), f10 (ten rupiah), and f100 (one hundred rupiah). As a region within the Dutch East Indies, Minangkabau subsequently adopted the Gulden as its primary transaction tool. The currency gained the community’s trust as the highest medium of exchange at the time, evidenced by various colonial-era pawnshop manuscripts where the Gulden consistently appears as the main currency for pawning assets. This currency persisted through the Japanese occupation and was only completely abandoned after independence. So, when did the rupiah officially become the currency of the Republic of Indonesia? This question arises knowing the term rupiah was used long before independence. Linguistically, the use of a currency term and its recognition as a national currency are two different matters. During the colonial period, the word rupiah was used as the equivalent of Gulden in the Dutch East Indies monetary system and was followed by the public in daily practice, as reflected in the Minangkabau pawnshop manuscripts. However, the Republic of Indonesia only established its own currency when the government issued Oeang Republik Indonesia on 30 October 1946 as the official legal tender. From that point, foreign and colonial currencies were gradually replaced by the currency issued by the Republic of Indonesia. Thus, the history of the term rupiah is longer than that of the nation using it. Before becoming the monetary term of the Republic of Indonesia, it lived within the Dutch East Indies monetary system and was used by the public in various transactions. The pawnshop manuscripts serve as tangible evidence that the term was not only known in official colonial documents but was also applied in the legal and economic practices of Minangkabau society. The repeated writing of f220 (two hundred and twenty rupiah), f200 (two hundred rupiah), and other examples in the manuscripts demonstrates that this writing convention was thoroughly understood and applied by scribes of that era. For me, this underscores the importance of manuscripts as both historical sources and archaeological data. From an archaeological perspective, such manuscripts become contextual sources that bring the past to life.