The Mauritian rupee
Currency · MUR · Rs · 1 country
An Order in Council made the rupee the only legal tender in Mauritius from 1876, a generation after a colonial Board of Commissioners of Currency had taken note issue away from competing commercial banks. The Bank of Mauritius, established on 1 September 1967, has held the sole right to issue the rupee since, and its cent coins still circulate.
The abbreviation
Rs, short for rupees, stands before the amount on every Mauritian note, and Re marks a single rupee, as on the Re 1 coin. The back of each note repeats the value in Devanagari after रु, the Devanagari abbreviation of rupee.
The same abbreviation stands for 3 other currencies, among them the Nepalese rupee and the Pakistani rupee.
- ISO code
- MUR
- ISO number
- 480
- Subunit
- cent, 1/100
An amount, written out
Rs 1,234.50
- Rs 1,234.50EnglishMauritius
Where the Mauritian rupee is the official currency
Mauritius holds it as sole legal tender, a status dating from 1876. The Bank of Mauritius issues it, polymer 25, 50 and 500 rupee notes included.
About the Mauritian rupee
How the island paid before the rupee
In 1810 Isle de France, as the French called the island, ran short of coin, and Governor Charles Decaen had a local silver piece struck. The Piastre Decaen carried the French imperial eagle. It became the settlement's official currency. The British kept using it after they took the island and stamped it with CC for Crown Colonies. A writ of 1820 ordered small silver coins for British colonies, the Anchor coinage, based on the Spanish dollar.
Who took note issue from the banks
Commercial banks on the island competed to issue banknotes through the eighteenth century and into the nineteenth. The British Imperial Government ended that in 1849 by setting up a Board of Commissioners of Currency in Mauritius to issue the currency itself. The rupee became the only legal tender from 1876 under an Order in Council, and the first government notes, dated 1876, were for 5, 10 and 50 rupees.
Coins of 1 to 20 cents followed in 1877, copper for the three small values and silver for the 10 and 20. Production stopped in 1899. It resumed in 1911. Silver returned in 1934 with quarter, half and one rupee coins, and cupro-nickel took its place in 1950. The Second World War brought emergency notes of 25 and 50 cents and one rupee in 1940.
When the central bank took over
A sessional paper proposing a central bank went to the Legislative Council on 5 April 1966. Bill No. 33 of 1966 passed on 12 July and received assent on 28 September, and the Bank of Mauritius was established on 1 September 1967. Its first notes that year were undated issues of 5, 10, 25 and 50 rupees with Queen Elizabeth II on the front. Section 35 of the Bank of Mauritius Act 2004 now gives it the sole right to issue notes.
The monarch left the coins in 1987, when a new series carried the portrait of Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam and was struck in copper-plated steel for the 1 and 5 cents, nickel-plated steel for the 20 cents and the half rupee, and cupro-nickel for the one and five rupees. A bimetallic 20 rupee coin marked the bank's fortieth anniversary in 2007 and stayed in general use. The current coins run from 5 cents to 20 rupees, and the 1 cent of 1987 is seen only by collectors.
Why a new banknote series was withdrawn within months
In November 1998 the bank put out seven denominations at once, from 25 to 2,000 rupees, printed in England by Thomas de la Rue. They came out of circulation in June 1999 after a dispute over the order of the languages on them, and the series issued after that date remains current.
The notes are multilingual. The front gives the value in English, Tamil and Bhojpuri, and the back repeats it in Devanagari, with the abbreviation रु, and in Tamil and Gujarati numerals. Each denomination is a different size, from 135 by 66 millimetres for the 25 rupees to 165 by 78 for the 2,000.
What the polymer notes replaced
Polymer notes of 25, 50 and 500 rupees went into circulation on 22 August 2013. The 2,000 followed on 4 December 2018, the 1,000 on 2 December 2024, and the 100 and 200 in June and July 2025. The bank's stated reasons were that polymer lasts longer, is more cost effective and is harder to counterfeit.
Common questions
Questions about the Mauritian rupee
What do Re and Rs mean on Mauritian money?
Both abbreviate rupee. Re is the singular, used for one rupee and for fractions of one such as the Re 1/2 coin, and Rs is the plural that stands in front of every note's value. The ISO code is MUR.
Why were the 1998 Mauritian banknotes withdrawn?
The Bank of Mauritius issued seven new notes together in November 1998, from Rs 25 to Rs 2,000, all printed in England by Thomas de la Rue. They were withdrawn in June 1999 after controversy over the order in which the languages appeared on them. Accounts of the dispute link it to which community, Tamil or Hindi speaking, arrived on the island first. The bank issued the replacement series later in 1999, with portraits of Mauritian figures on the front and a different vignette of the island on each back. Polymer versions of the same designs have replaced most of the paper notes since 2013.
Are Mauritian banknotes made of plastic now?
Most of them are. The Bank of Mauritius began issuing polymer notes on 22 August 2013 with the 25, 50 and 500 rupee values, and had polymer 1,000, 100 and 200 rupee notes in circulation by July 2025. The bank says polymer notes last longer, stay cleaner because they absorb no moisture, and are harder to counterfeit.
Which languages appear on a Mauritian banknote?
English, Tamil and Bhojpuri on the front, where the value is written out beneath a line stating that the note is legal tender. On the back the value appears in Devanagari, Tamil and Gujarati. The Rs sign sits to the left of the figures on both sides, and a feature under the value helps visually impaired users tell the notes apart.