Singapore dollar | |
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Singaporean dollar (English) Dolar/ Ringgit Singapura (Malay) 新加坡元 / 新币 (Chinese) சிங்கப்பூர் வெள்ளி (Tamil) |
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$2 polymer banknote obverse
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ISO 4217 | |
Code | SGD |
Number | 702 |
Exponent | 2 |
Denominations | |
Subunit | |
1/100 | cent |
Symbol | S$ or $ |
Nickname | Sing |
Banknotes | |
Freq. used | $2, $5, $10, $50, $100, $1,000 |
Rarely used | $10,000 |
Coins | |
Freq. used | 5, 10, 20, 50 cents, $1 |
Rarely used | 1 cent |
Demographics | |
User(s) |
Singapore Brunei (alongside the Brunei dollar) |
Issuance | |
Monetary authority | Monetary Authority of Singapore |
Website | www |
Mint | Singapore Mint |
Website | www |
Valuation | |
Inflation | -0.3% at March 2015 |
Pegged by | Brunei dollar at par |
Singapore dollar | |||||||||||
Chinese name | |||||||||||
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Chinese | 新加坡元 | ||||||||||
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Malay name | |||||||||||
Malay | Dolar/Ringgit Singapura | ||||||||||
Tamil name | |||||||||||
Tamil | சிங்கப்பூர் வெள்ளி |
Transcriptions | |
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Standard Mandarin | |
Hanyu Pinyin | Xīnjiāpō yuan |
Yue: Cantonese | |
Jyutping | San1Gaa1Bo1Jyun4 |
The Singaporean dollar (Malay: Ringgit Singapura, sign: $; code: SGD) is the official currency of Singapore. It is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or alternatively S$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies. It is divided into 100 cents.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Monetary Authority of Brunei Darussalam (Autoriti Monetari Brunei Darussalam) still maintain the historic exchangeability of their two currencies, the Singapore dollar and the Brunei dollar, respectively. The Singaporean dollar is accepted as "customary tender" in Brunei according to the Currency Interchangeability Agreement. Likewise, the Bruneian dollar is customarily accepted in Singapore.
Between 1845 and 1939, Singapore used the Straits dollar. This was replaced by the Malayan dollar, and, from 1953, the Malaya and British Borneo dollar, which were issued by the Board of Commissioners of Currency, Malaya and British Borneo.
Singapore continued to use the common currency upon joining Malaysia in 1963, but only two years after Singapore's expulsion and independence from Malaysia in 1965, the monetary union between Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei broke down. Singapore established the Board of Commissioners of Currency, Singapore, on 7 April 1967 and issued its first coins and notes. Nevertheless, the Singapore dollar was exchangeable at par with the Malaysian ringgit until 1973, and interchangeability with the Brunei dollar is still maintained.
Initially, the Singaporean dollar was pegged to the British pound sterling at a rate of S$60 = £7. This peg lasted until the demise of the Sterling Area due to the Nixon Shock in the early 1970s, after which the Singaporean dollar was linked to the US dollar for a short time. As Singapore's economy grew and its trade links diversified to many other countries and regions, Singapore moved towards pegging its currency against a fixed and undisclosed trade-weighted basket of currencies from 1973 to 1985.