The largest denomination is 100,000 – Seratus Ribu Rupia. The Indonesian people joke that the people on the largest note are laughing but as the value of the notes go down the people look less happy!
Before you arrive it is a good idea to learn how to count in Indonesian and how to roughly convert Rupia to your home currency.
100,000 rupia equals roughly $AUD10.00 and $US6.50.
The counting goes 1-10…. Satu, dua. tiga, empat, lima, enam, tujuh, delapan, sembilan sepuluh.
Then 11-20… sebelas, duabelas, tigabelas……. until 20 which is dua puluh.
20-30 dua puluh satu, dua puluh tiga etc until tiga puluh.
30-40 tiga puluh satu, tiga puluh dua etc, etc.
Once you get to 100 it is seratus followed by the same as above then 200 is dua ratus and the same pattern continues.
Then you get to 1,000 which is seribu, dua ribu, tiga ribu etc.
Once you get to 1,000,000 and beyond, it is satu juta, dua juta, tiga juta etc.
You can practice the pronunciation of these numbers with many apps…. Google translate is pretty good.
In North Sulawesi the local people are very honest and decent. If you don’t understand the currency they will help you without ripping you off. If you pay them too much they will return the over-payment.