The Bhutanese ngultrum
Currency · BTN · 1 country
Bhutan's monetary reform of 1974 created the ngultrum, divided into 100 chhertum, and kept the one to one link with the Indian rupee that Bhutanese coins already held. The rupee still circulates beside it, and the ISO 4217 list names both as Bhutan's currencies. The Royal Monetary Authority, set up as the central bank in 1982, is the only body the law allows to issue it.
No sign of its own
The ngultrum has no symbol of its own. Amounts are written with the abbreviation Nu. before the figure, as in Nu.100, and the hundredth is written Ch., for chhertum, as on the coins.
- ISO code
- BTN
- ISO number
- 064
- Subunit
- chhertum, 1/100
An amount, written out
BTN 1,234.50
- BTN 1,234.50English
- Nu. ༡,༢༣༤.༥༠DzongkhaBhutan
Where the Bhutanese ngultrum is the official currency
Inside Bhutan it shares the till with the Indian rupee, which circulates at parity with it.
Legal tender alongside it
About the Bhutanese ngultrum
Who issues the money in Thimphu
Section 9(a) of the Royal Monetary Authority Act 2010 names the Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan the country's sole currency issuing authority. The body is older than that act. The Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan Act was passed on 4 August 1982, the Authority began work on 1 November 1983, and it took the note issue over from the Ministry of Finance, although its own first family of notes did not appear until 1986.
The first ngultrum notes came from the government on 2 June 1974, in denominations of 1, 5 and 10. Notes of 2, 20, 50 and 100 followed in 1978. The IMF's Finance and Development magazine ties the first paper money to the coronation of the fourth king in 1974.
Why the ngultrum holds par with the rupee
The peg did not start with the ngultrum. For a long stretch Bhutan used coins struck elsewhere: pieces from the Cooch Behar mint circulated until 1789. After that the country issued its own chetrum, mostly silver half rupees, hammered by hand until modern style coins arrived in 1929. Decimal coinage in naya paisa followed in 1957.
Those coins traded level with the Indian rupee, and the 1974 reform carried the same rate over to the new unit. The ngultrum remains pegged to the rupee at parity, and the rupee is used alongside it inside Bhutan.
What the name ngultrum means
The word joins the Dzongkha ngul, silver, to trum, a loanword from Hindi for money. Read together it comes out as silver coin. The hundredth is the chhertum, from a Dzongkha phrase for half a coin, and coins spelled it chetrum until 1979.
How the coins and notes look now
The 1974 coins ran from a square Ch.5 and a scalloped Ch.10 up to a cupro-nickel Nu.1. A new coinage in 1979 added Ch.50 and Nu.3. The Ch.5 and Ch.10 have largely dropped out of use, and the coins issued now are Ch.20, Ch.25, Ch.50 and Nu.1. The Ch.50 carries a treasure vase, one of the eight revered Buddhist symbols, and the Ch.25 the golden fishes of good fortune.
New Nu.100, Nu.500 and Nu.1000 notes went into circulation in January 2026, after an unveiling the previous November on the fourth king's seventieth birthday. De La Rue designed them on a polymer substrate. The Nu.500 and Nu.1000 carry a holographic stripe showing a dragon grasping jewels. The Nu.1000 shows Ugyen Wangchuck, who ruled from 1907 to 1926, in his father's Raven Crown, and on the back Trongsa Dzong above the Mangde Chhu, with two great hornbills.
Common questions
Questions about the Bhutanese ngultrum
Can Indian rupees be spent in Bhutan?
Yes. The Indian rupee circulates in Bhutan alongside the ngultrum, and the two are pegged at parity, a rate the ngultrum inherited in 1974 from the Bhutanese coins that came before it. One ngultrum and one rupee change hands at the same value.
What does ngultrum mean?
It is a Dzongkha word. Ngul means silver and trum is a Hindi loanword meaning money, so the name reads as silver coin. The subunit, chhertum, comes from the Dzongkha for half a coin Bhutan's older silver half rupees went by the same name, chetrum.
What changed on the new ngultrum notes of 2026?
The Nu.100, Nu.500 and Nu.1000 notes that entered circulation in January 2026 were redesigned half a century after the first notes of 1974. De La Rue designed them, they are printed on polymer, and the two higher values carry a holographic stripe of a dragon grasping jewels. The Nu.1000 shows the founding ruler Ugyen Wangchuck in the Raven Crown, with Trongsa Dzong, the state seal and two great hornbills on the back. The fourth king, who founded the Royal Monetary Authority, appears on the Nu.500 beside a vajra cross.
Who issues the ngultrum?
The Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan is the only body allowed to issue it, under Section 9(a) of the Royal Monetary Authority Act 2010. It has issued notes since 1983, taking the job over from the Ministry of Finance. The polymer notes of 2026 were designed by De La Rue in Basingstoke, England.