Where Would You Use a Ruble, Yen, Rupee, Drachma and Guilder?

You would use a ruble in Russia, a yen in Japan, a rupee in India and Pakistan, a drachma in Greece, and a guilder in Holland. They are all units of the monetary systems of those countries.

The ruble or rouble is or was a currency unit of a number of countries in Eastern Europe closely associated with the economy of Russia. Originally, the ruble was the currency unit of Imperial Russia and then the Soviet Union (as Soviet ruble), and it is currently the currency unit of Russia (as Russian ruble) and Belarus (as Belarussian ruble).

The Russian ruble is also used in the partially recognized states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. In the past, several other countries influenced by Russia and the Soviet Union had currency units that were also named rubles.

One ruble is divided into 100 kopeks, was the name for silver bar money which was in use in Russia from the 14th to the 17th Century. Peter the Great set up the modern system of coins, and the silver bar money was abolished.

The yen was originally a gold coin, but was changed to silver. A one yen coin is now made of aluminum and the five and ten yen pieces are made of nickel. The yen is the official currency of Japan.

It is the third most traded currency in the foreign exchange market after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a reserve currency after the U.S. dollar, the euro, and the pound sterling. 100 yen is unofficially symbolized $, so a 980-yen item may be written as $9.8.

The rupee is the common name for the currencies of India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Maldives, Mauritius, Nepal, Bhutan, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, and formerly those of Afghanistan, Tibet, Burma and British East Africa, German East Africa and Trucial States.

The word rupee means “silver coin”. It came into use in 1542 when the Sultan of Delhi, Sher Shah, reorganized the currency. It was kept as a monetary unit and is now divided into 100 naya paise (new paisas). Large amounts of rupees have special names: a lakh is 100,000 and a crore is ten million rupees.

In the Maldives, the unit of currency is known as the rufiyah, which is a cognate of the Sanskrit rupya. The Indian rupees and Pakistani rupees are subdivided into one hundred paise (singular paisa) or pice.

The Mauritian and Sri Lankan rupees subdivide into 100 cents. The Nepalese rupee subdivides into one hundred paisas (both singular and double) or four sukas or two mohors.

The drachma, in Ancient Greece was a silver coin and also a measure of weight. There were 100 drachmae to one mina which weighed about one pound. The modern drachma is divided into 100 lepta. Drachma was the currency used in Greece during several periods in its history:

An ancient Greek currency unit issued by many Greek city states during a period of ten centuries, from the Archaic period throughout the Classical period, the Hellenistic period up to the Roman period under Greek Imperial Coinage.

Three Modern Greek currencies, the first introduced in 1832 and the last replaced by the euro in 2001 (at the rate of 340.75 drachma to the euro). The euro did not begin circulating until 2002 but the exchange rate was fixed on 19 June 2000, with legal introduction of the euro taking place in January 2002.

Guilder is the English translation of the Dutch and German gulden, originally shortened from Middle High German guldin pfenninc”gold penny”. This was the term that became current in the southern and western parts of the Holy Roman Empire for the Fiorino d’oro (introduced 1252). Hence, the name has often been interchangeable with florin (currency sign ƒ or ƒl.).

With increasingly standardized currencies in the early modern period, gulden or guilder became a term for various early modern and modern currencies, detached from actual gold coins, in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The Netherlands Indies gulden was introduced in 1602, at the start of the United East Indies Company. The Dutch guilder originated in 1680 as a 10.61g .910 silver coins, minted by the States of Holland and West Friesland.

The guilder, which was the currency of The Netherlands and its overseas territories, was divided into 100 cents. This unit of currency spread to Northern Europe from Florence in Italy and was also used under the name of florin.

The British Guianan guilder was in use in British Guiana, 1796 to 1839.

In 1753, Bavaria and Austria-Hungary agreed to use the same conventions. The result was the Austro-Hungarian gulden (Austrian Empire 1754 to 1892), and the Bavarian gulden (1754 to 1873, see also Baden gulden, Württemberg gulden, South German gulden).

A Danzig gulden was in use 1923 to 1939.

The Dutch guilder remained the national currency of the Netherlands until it was replaced by the euro on 1 January 2002. The Netherlands Antillean guilder is currently the only guilder in use, which after the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles remained the currency of the new countries Curaçao and Sint Maarten and (until 1 January 2011) the Caribbean Netherlands.

Content for this question contributed by Ian Winn, resident of Pacific Palisades, city of Los Angeles County, California, USA