The Bangladeshi taka
Currency · BDT · ৳ · 1 country
Bangladesh introduced the taka on 4 March 1972, about three months after independence, and until then the notes of the State Bank of Pakistan had kept circulating. The name comes from the Sanskrit ṭaṅka, a silver coin, and in Bangla the word also means money of any kind. Bangladesh Bank issues the notes, and a taka divides into 100 poisha.
The sign
The sign ৳ is drawn from the Bangla letter ট, the first letter of টাকা, taka. Unicode has carried it since version 1.0 because historical texts used it, and names it BENGALI RUPEE SIGN because Bengali writing in India uses it for the rupee as well. Receipts in Bangladesh often print Tk.
- ISO code
- BDT
- ISO number
- 050
- Subunit
- poisha, 1/100
An amount, written out
৳1,234.50
- ৳1,234.50English
- ১,২৩৪.৫০৳BanglaBangladesh
The sign in code
HTML, CSS, JavaScript, UTF-8
- HTML
৳৳- CSS
content: "\09F3";- JavaScript
"\u09F3"- UTF-8
0xE0 0xA7 0xB3- UTF-16
0x09F3- UTF-32
0x000009F3
Where the Bangladeshi taka is the official currency
Bangladesh pays in taka, which Bangladesh Bank has managed as a crawling peg against the US dollar since 8 May 2024.
About the Bangladeshi taka
Who puts the notes into circulation
Bangladesh Bank describes itself as the sole authority to issue banknotes in Bangladesh, and it changes their designs from time to time. The low values have a second history. The first notes of 1972 split between two issuers: treasury notes of ৳1 from the government, and Bangladesh Bank notes of ৳5, ৳10 and ৳100. Wikipedia records the ৳2 and ৳5 notes as government notes under the Ministry of Finance, with the bank controlling ৳10 and above. The bank's own list of notes runs from Taka One to Taka One Thousand.
Since 8 May 2024 the central bank has managed the taka as a crawling peg against the US dollar.
What the taka replaced after independence
After the Partition of 1947 East Bengal became the eastern wing of Pakistan, renamed East Pakistan in 1956. The Pakistani rupee already carried the word taka on its notes and coins. During the war of 1971 some Bengali nationalists stamped Pakistani notes with বাংলা দেশ or BANGLA DESH as a protest, and on 8 June 1971 the Pakistani government declared every stamped note void. It withdrew the 100 and 500 rupee notes at the same time, so that looted notes could not be spent. State Bank of Pakistan notes stayed in use in the new country until the taka arrived in March 1972.
How the note series has changed
The bank added ৳50 in 1977, ৳500 in 1979 and ৳20 in 1982. The government printed ৳1 treasury notes until 1992 and brought in a ৳2 note in 1989. In 2000 it tried a polymer ৳10 note. It proved unpopular and was withdrawn. The ৳1,000 note followed in 2008 and the ৳200 note on 17 March 2020.
Commemorative notes fill the gaps between: ৳40 in 2011 for the fortieth anniversary of victory, ৳60 in 2012 for sixty years of the National Movement, and ৳25 in 2013 for the silver jubilee of the Security Printing Corporation. The regular series have carried mosques, national monuments, village life, farming and animals. Series issued under Awami League governments put the portrait of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding president, on the front. After the July Uprising of 2024 the bank announced a redesign, and the new series drops the portrait and adds graffiti from the uprising.
Why poisha coins have dropped out of use
Coins came in 1973, in 5, 10, 25 and 50 poisha, with a 1 poisha coin in 1974 and a ৳1 coin in 1975. The small ones were aluminium. The 5 poisha was square with rounded corners and the 10 poisha scalloped, while the 25 and 50 poisha were steel and the ৳1 copper nickel. Steel ৳5 coins followed in 1994 and a steel ৳2 in 2004.
Inflation emptied the lower end. Poisha coins are rarely seen, and even the ৳1, ৳2 and ৳5 coins turn up only now and then. Coins are not struck every year: the latest ৳2 and ৳5 coins date from 2013 and the ৳1 from 2014. The poisha survives in accounts, where Tk123,456.78 means 123,456 taka and 78 poisha. English sources spell it poisha or poysha.
Common questions
Questions about the Bangladeshi taka
What does the ৳ symbol mean?
It is the sign of the Bangladeshi taka, written before the amount, as in ৳500. The shape comes from the Bangla letter ট that begins the word টাকা. Shops and receipts also use the short form Tk, and the ISO code is BDT.
Why is the Indian rupee also called taka in West Bengal?
In Bangla the word taka means money in general, whatever the currency. The Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura use taka as the official Bangla name of the Indian rupee, and Assamese and Odia use close relatives of the word. All of them go back to the Sanskrit ṭaṅka, a silver coin. The same Bengali sign is sometimes written for the rupee in India, which is why Unicode calls ৳ the Bengali rupee sign.
Can poisha coins still be spent in Bangladesh?
Bangladesh Bank still lists the 1, 5, 10, 25 and 50 poisha coins, but inflation has taken them out of daily use and they are rarely found. The ৳1, ৳2 and ৳5 coins appear only occasionally, and the ৳2 and ৳5 notes have mostly given way to coins. Poisha survive on paper: an amount written Tk123,456.78 is read as 123,456 taka and 78 poisha.
What money did Bangladesh use in 1971?
Pakistani rupees. East Pakistan used the notes of the State Bank of Pakistan, which already printed the word taka on them. During the war some Bengali nationalists stamped the notes with BANGLA DESH in Bangla or English, and the Pakistani government declared the stamped notes invalid on 8 June 1971, along with every 100 and 500 rupee note, to keep looted money out of circulation. The Pakistani notes stayed in use after independence until the taka was introduced on 4 March 1972.