Indian Rupee.
As of the date of this posting, the exchange rate (according to xe.com) is 40.6 Indian rupees to one US dollar. The Indian rupee is divided into 100 paise (singular paisa). The ISO 4217 code is INR. Locally, the abbreviations Rs and Rp are frequently used. Banknotes worth Rs. 5, Rs. 10, Rs. 20, Rs. 50, Rs. 100, Rs. 500, Rs. 1000 are currently in circulation.
All notes are issued by the Reserve Bank of India. The current series, which began in 1996, is called the Mahatma Gandhi series and can be easily identified as the obverse face of each note has a watermark image of Mahatma Ghandi and differing images on the reverse.
Some interesting facts about the Indian rupee note:
The back image has a language panel that displays the denomination of the note in each of India's 15 national languages and,
.....currency notes and coins have various tactile and visual features to assist the significantly large number of India's illiterate population to identify the various denominations e.g., all notes and coins have various sizes and different geometric shapes (triangle, rectangle, etc.) are embossed on left of watermark window for visually impaired.
Nepalese Rupee.
As of the date of this posting, the exchange rate (according to xe.com) is 65.4 Nepalese rupees to one US dollar.The exchange rate for the Nepalese Rupee is pegged to the Indian rupee at a fixed rate of 1.6 Nepalese rupees to 1 Indian rupee. Like its Indian counterpart, the Nepalese rupee is divided into 100 paise (singular paisa). The ISO 4217 code is NPR. As with the Indian rupee, the abbreviations Rs and Rp are frequently used. Banknotes worth Rs. 5, Rs. 10, Rs. 20, Rs. 50, Rs. 100, Rs. 500, Rs. 1000 are currently in circulation. All notes are issued by the Nepal Rastra Bank.
The obverse face of each note displays an image of King Gyendra and various images on the reverse face - a pair of yaks on the 5Rps note.
Chinese Yuan.
The official currency of China is the renminbi and its base unit is known as the yuan. As of the date of this posting, the exchange rate (according to xe.com) is 7.54 Chinese yuan to one US dollar. The yuan has two subdivisions - the tenth's are known as jiao and the hundreths's as fen.The ISO 4217 code is is CNY which is commonly abbreviated as "RMB". The Latinised symbol is ¥. Bank notes are issued in denominations of ¥1, ¥5, ¥10, ¥20, ¥50, and ¥100.
The current (5th) series of notes display Chairman Mao on the obverse face and different images on the reverse face.
Okay, I've reach currency overload - enough reading. Tomorrow, I will go to the bank and put in my order for Indian rupees and Chinese yuan. Then, I need to figure out how I'm going to keep track of the exchange rates so I don't get ripped off and an effective way to separate the notes and coins as I travel from one country to the other!
