The Maldivian rufiyaa
Currency · MVR · 1 country
The Maldives paid in cowrie shells, folded silver wire and Ceylonese rupees before its own notes, counted in rufiyaa at par with the rupee, went into circulation on 5 September 1948. The Maldives Monetary Authority issues the currency today and divides it into 100 laari. A sign for it, drawn from the Thaana letter raa, has existed since 2022.
No sign of its own
The Maldives Monetary Authority introduced a sign on 3 July 2022: the Thaana letter ރ (raa), the first letter of rufiyaa in Dhivehi, with an extra horizontal stroke. Unicode scheduled it as U+20C2 for version 18.0, and until fonts carry it amounts are written with the abbreviation Rf or the code MVR.
- ISO code
- MVR
- ISO number
- 462
- Subunit
- laari, 1/100
An amount, written out
MVR 1,234.50
- MVR 1,234.50English
Where the Maldivian rufiyaa is the official currency
The Maldives uses it alone, split into laari since the coins ordered from the Royal Mint arrived in February 1961.
About the Maldivian rufiyaa
What the islands paid with before the rufiyaa
Cowrie shells came first. Travellers' accounts show them traded as money in the thirteenth century, and in 1344 Ibn Battuta counted more than forty shiploads exported each year. A single gold dinar was worth 400,000 shells. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the islands imported larin, straps of silver wire folded in half and carrying Persian and Arabic inscriptions. The same wire money passed around the Persian Gulf, India and Ceylon.
The first known Maldivian coins, in pure silver, were struck in Malé under Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar, who reigned from 1648 to 1687. Gold coins replaced them in 1787. Bronze coins counted in laari followed through the nineteenth century. The last of them, 1 and 4 laari pieces, came from Heaton's Mint in Birmingham in 1913.
How the rufiyaa grew out of the Ceylon rupee
With no more coins made for the islands, the Sultanate used the Ceylonese rupee. In 1945 the Majlis passed bill 2/66 on a Maldivian bank note, and notes of half a rufiyaa up to 10 went into circulation on 5 September 1948, equal in value to the rupee. The name comes from the Sanskrit rūpya, wrought silver.
Coins followed later. Early in 1960 the Sultan ordered laari coins from the Royal Mint in England, now worth a hundredth of a rufiyaa, and they entered circulation in February 1961. Almost every older coin was withdrawn on 17 June 1966. The ISO code changed from MVQ, for the Maldive rupee, to MVR in 1990.
How the Monetary Authority reshaped the coinage
The Maldives Monetary Authority works under the Maldives Monetary Authority Act of 1981. It introduced a 1 rufiyaa coin, minted in West Germany, on 22 January 1983. Notes of 2 to 100 rufiyaa followed in a new series that year. A 500 note came in 1990. The 2 rufiyaa note became a coin in 1995, and a bimetallic 2 rufiyaa coin replaced that one in 2017.
Why a banknote beat the planned coin
In October 2015 the Authority launched a new family of polymer notes, adding a 1,000 rufiyaa note, and issued a polymer 5,000 to mark fifty years of independence. The plan was to retire the 5 rufiyaa note in favour of a coin. Public input changed that, and a polymer 5 rufiyaa note appeared in July 2017. The series draws on island life: a fisherman with a skipjack tuna on the 20, a toddy tapper on the 10, and a green turtle with manta rays on the 1,000.
How the rufiyaa got a sign of its own
The Authority unveiled a rufiyaa sign on 3 July 2022. Hassan Shujau designed it, and a committee from the Authority, the Dhivehi Bahuge Academy and other fields picked it from 70 proposals sent in to a nationwide competition. It was scheduled for Unicode 18.0, expected in September 2026, as U+20C2.
Common questions
Questions about the Maldivian rufiyaa
Is there a symbol for the Maldivian rufiyaa?
Yes, since 3 July 2022. The Maldives Monetary Authority chose Hassan Shujau's design from 70 entries to a nationwide competition. It takes the Thaana letter raa, which begins the word rufiyaa in Dhivehi, and adds a parallel stroke of the kind other currency signs use. Because Unicode only scheduled it for version 18.0, expected in September 2026, amounts are still written with the abbreviation Rf or the code MVR wherever the sign cannot be typed.
How many laari make one rufiyaa?
One hundred. Laari were once coins in their own right, struck in bronze through the nineteenth century, and became a hundredth of the rufiyaa when the coins ordered from the Royal Mint entered circulation in February 1961. Coins of 1 to 50 laari exist, though the small ones are rarely used.
Why did the Maldives keep a 5 rufiyaa banknote?
The Monetary Authority meant to replace the note with a coin. Public input persuaded it otherwise, and it issued a polymer 5 rufiyaa note in July 2017, two years after the rest of the polymer series appeared. That family had opened in October 2015 with a new 1,000 rufiyaa note among its values.
What did Maldivians use as money before the rufiyaa?
Cowrie shells, for centuries, at a value of 400,000 shells to a gold dinar. Imported larin, folded straps of silver wire, circulated in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and Maldivian silver, gold and bronze coins followed. By the 1940s the islands used the Ceylonese rupee, until rufiyaa notes of equal value arrived in 1948.