I find that the US has a similar condition of small denomination paper money replaced by coin to Indonesia before 2010.
Both the paper Rp 1000 (printed starting 1968, and is smallest paper money denomination, as of 1999 or 2000 I think, I wasn't old enough to remember what was circulating, but the smaller denominations were not withdrawn until 30 November 2006, still exchangeable for new money until 29 November 2016 even though inflation meant that they were worthless) and the thick and heavy nickel-and-brass bimetallic coins were circulating (the largest circulating coin denomination from 1993 to date). It was the heaviest one by far for its time, and just shy of being the heaviest for all circulating Rupiah coins (heaviest coin was minted only in 1973, this one was minted starting from 1993).
My mom has a person she often buys groceries from in the wet market. When I was really young, she sometimes changed paper bills with those coins (the coins for me to have, but I've mostly lost them, if not I'll have a lot of money now, saving that, 1000, 2000, 3000...), and the man once said to her, "Most of the time, nobody wants these for their change!"
The bimetallic coins were unpopular and they were not minted after 2000. So for the next 10 years only the paper bills were issued. In 2010, they introduced a smaller and lighter nickel-plated steel coin, weighing just a little more than half the of the original bimetallic coin. They were not widely used. You see one occasionally in your change but more often you get the may-not-be-old-but-smelly bills (yes, they do get worn very quickly, one issued at the beginning of the year might be badly torn by the end of the year).
The government stopped printing the bills in 2012. It was then that the coins began getting common. But even today, there are still a lot of the Rp 1000 bills circulating, as the government is not withdrawing them (at least not yet, in a few years they will be withdrawn and become "expired money" too, you can't exchange it for new money anymore).
So in conclusion here for the coins to be widely accepted you have to stop making more paper money of the same denomination. Especially if the denomination is considered large for a coin but small for paper money.
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Posted 11/19/2014 6:08 pm
