Bank Indonesia Withdraws Old Banknote

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Bank Indonesia (BI) of North Sumatra headquarters pulled decommissioned banknotes, issued in 1998 and 1999, amounting to Rp526 million from the public.

North Sumatra’s BI temporary chief representative Hilman Tisnawan said that most people traded-in the Rp50,000 banknotes issued in 1999.

“BI offered members of the public to trade-in their old decommissioned bills since December 27,” said Hilman on Sunday, December 30.

Hilman explained that the central bank will further extend its trade-in period for bank notes comprising of Rp100,000 and Rp50,000 issued in 1999, and Rp10,000 bills issued in 1998.

The public enthusiasm in the initial trade-in further convinced that there are still plenty of people keeping large amounts of decommissioned banknotes as a collector's item.

“Collectors would keep them in hopes of selling it with a higher value once it is considered to be an antique item,” he said.

The old and defunct bills, according to Bank Indonesia (BI), will be treated as banknotes that have been physically damaged or those with physical defects and have them destroyed permanently in a processing machine.

ANTARA