Rupee is also the currency of the country Pakistan. In order to distinguish it from other rupee countries, like Nepal and India, it has the code of PKR; its sign is Rs. In Pakistan, the rupee is also called as “rupaya” or “rupaye”. The central bank of the country, the State Bank of Pakistan, is the one in control of issuing the currency.
The word rupee came from a Sanskrit word rūp or rūpā, which means silver. That was introduced between the year 1540 and 1545 CE. The Pakistani rupee was circulated in 1947, after they were independent from the British Rule. After a few months from their independence, Pakistan used Indian coins and notes – stamping it with the words “Government of Pakistan” in dual languages, English and Urdu. Denominations of these notes were 1, 2, 5, 10 and 100 rupee.
Of coins, during 1948, denominations made were of 1 pice, ½, 1 and 2 annas, ¼, ½ and 1 rupee. One pie coins were added in the fifties. In January 1961, the rupee was subdivided into 100 pice (the word later changes to paisa and in English, paise). During the 1960s, 1, 5 and 10 pice were issued after which it was renamed to paisa. The 2, 10 and 25 paise were introduced in 1963. One paisa coins were last produced in 1976. The 5, 10, 25 and 50 paise were discontinued in 1994. Introductions of the 2 rupee and 5 rupee coins were made in 1998 and 2002. There are two versions of the 2 rupee coins, some have clouds printed above the Badshahi Masjid and a lot don’t have it.
For the banknotes, the government regularly issues 1, 5, 10, 100 rupee in 1948. The 1 rupee note was discontinued in the eighties. Another issuance of notes was made by the State Bank in 1953, with 2, 5, 10 and 100 rupees notes were issued. Added in 1957 were the 50 rupee notes followed by the 500 rupee in 1986 and 1,000 rupee the next year. The 2 and 5 rupees notes were replaced in the form of coins in 1998 and four years later. The following additions were also made: 20 rupee notes in 2005 and 5,000 rupees in 2006. All the banknotes (except for the 1 and 2 rupee) have the image of Muhammad Ali Jinnah on the obverse. The reverse side has the translation of Prophet Hadith – “Seeking honest livelihood is worship of God.”
Haji notes were also printed due to numerous Haji pilgrims to Saudi Arabia in the 1950s. They stopped circulating in 1978.
As of February 23, 2011 the exchange rate was 1.00 Pakistani Rupee = 0.0117 U.S. Dollar.