The Kepang, officially the Kepang-Bahru (New Kepang) is the official currency of Majapahit Republic. It is the third least valued currency in the world, with 1 Kyat equal to 100,000 Kepangs. 1 Kepang is divided into 100 Sen, which is not used.
The Majapahit Central Bank (MCB) is responsible for issuing the Kepang. The current series of the Kepang consists of the 500.000, 1.000.000, 5.000.000, 10.000.000, 20.000.000, 50.000.000, 100.000.000, 200.000.000 kepang banknotes. The coins have the value of 10.000, 20.000, 50.000, 100.000, 200.000 and 500.000 kepangs.
In 2005, the MCB released a new series of polymer banknotes, making it the 8th nation to use a complete series of polymer banknotes. This was in response to a major controversy following the discovery of high quality counterfeits, some of which were even used by government officials.
The 500.000 kepang coin and 200.000.000 kepang banknotes are the largest valued coin and banknote in circulation respectively.
|Value||Obverse||Symbol||Value in Kyat|
|500.000||Garuda||Flora and fauna of Majapahit||5.00|
|5.000.000||Diwa||Various ethnic groups of Majapahit||50.00|
|10.000.000||White Elephant||Maha Majapahit Buddhist Temple||100.00|
|20.000.000||Kinnari and Kinnara||National Parliament Building||200.00|
|50.000.000||Kertanegara of Singhasari||Mother Temple at Bali||500.00|
|100.000.000||Raden Wijaya||Palembang skyline||1,000.00|
|200.000.000||Dr Soekarno and M. Hatta||Borobudur||2,000.00|
2004 Counterfeit Controversy
In 2004, high quality counterfeits were discovered in circulation. A few high denomination notes handled by government officials and departments were also discovered to be forgeries, prompting a major investigation by the Majapahit Ministry of the Interior and the MCB. The production of the counterfeit banknotes were traced to a major money laundering ring led by a Burmese on the Majapahit island of Batam, near the Burmese city of Singapore. They were also discovered to be forging other major currency banknotes and also in the process of creating forgeries of the Burmese Kyat. In a joint ASEANPOL operation, over 200 Burmese and Majapahit were arrested across both Majapahit and Myanmar concerning the counterfeit ring. This lead to a radical redesigning of the Kepang banknotes and the adoption of polymer notes.