In Reply to: Dropping a few zeros posted by spartakle on Monday, 11. January 2010 at 09:22 Bali Time:
Historically, Indonesia has had a higher rate of inflation than Australia. Thus the purchasing power of the rupiah has declined faster than the Australia dollar.
Back in 1975, I received Rp 450 for the $A. Going back further a book in my collection sold for Rp 15 in 1952.
Indonesians cope with the zeros by using words such as sejuta (Rp 1m) and setengah juta (Rp 500,000). I noticed in Bali last year that some of the drink stalls had knocked off three zeros eg a drink was priced as Rp 15 (Rp 15,000).