The new banknote

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