The new banknote

A letter in The Jakarta Post on Nov. 8, 1999 raised the question of why the year '05 was mentioned instead of '45 on the new Rp 100,000 bill in reference to the Proclamation of Independence.

During the Japanese occupation, Indonesia used the Japanese calender, not the Judeo-Christian calender year. The year 1945 in the Christian calender is 2605 in the Japanese calender. In the Proclamation of Independence, like in nearly all Indonesian documents of the time, the Japanese calender year was used instead of the Christian calender year. Thus, it is neither a code nor a mistake on the part of Bank Indonesia, just good historical representation.

MAYUMI YAMAMOTO

Jakarta