1962 Indonesian Sen Riau Arch mint set grades
Windycity
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Really didn't know much about this set when acquired years ago but finally took it out and studied it a bit. I noted the Riau Arch coins were in fact more collectible so I sent them to PCGS for grading. Graded pretty well. Anyone here know much about the market for such coins?
1 1 57226647 489372 1962 Sen KM-5 MS64 Riau Arch
2 1 57226648 489373 1962 5 Sen KM-6 MS63 Riau Arch
3 1 57226649 489374 1962 10 Sen KM-7 MS62 Riau Arch
4 1 57226650 489375 1962 25 Sen KM-8.1 MS63 Riau Arch
5 1 57226651 489377 1962 50 Sen KM-9 MS63 Riau Arch
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They were trendy back at the peak of world coin collecting in the early 1970s, and some OFEC collectors still want them, considering them a "separate country".
The Riau Archipelago are a group of islands in between the "main" Indonesian islands and Singapore. They belong to Indonesia (and to the Dutch before them), but during Dutch colonial rule, the circulating currency in use in Riau was the Malayan dollar, rather than the Dutch guilder, and this remained the case after Indonesian independence.
Of course, it's not a good look when you've just won a war of independence for your country's existence, but a piece of your country refuses to use your country's money and insists on using the money of a neighbouring country (imagine if Texas declared the Mexican peso legal tender, or Minnesota the Canadian dollar). So in 1963, Indonesia formally withdrew the Malayan dollar from circulation in Riau, and replaced them with a new currency - the Riau rupiah, which replaced the dollar at par - 1 Riau rupiah equalled 1 dollar.
Of course, it then became quite confusing for the locals to have two currencies, both called "rupiah", circulating at widely different values to each other - there were about 15 Indonesian rupiah to equal 1 Riau rupiah. So this situation ended in the following year, with the Riau currency withdrawn and replaced with regular Indonesian currency, at the official exchange rate of 14.7:1.
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"
Apparently I have been awarded the DPOTD twice.
Very interest information! Thanks,
I have a few of these and hadn't realized they were in the least tough. I mightta been confused with other Indonesian coins which tend to be quite common.
edited for redo.