Malaysian Ringgit

The word ringgit is an obsolete term for "jagged" in the Malay language. The word was originally used to refer to the serrated edges of silver Spanish dollars. Spanish coins circulated widely in south-east Asian area from the 16th and 17th centuries, as Spain controlled the Philippines as part of the Spanish colonial empire. The Portuguese also had influence in the region, due to their control of Portuguese Malacca and due to the Iberian Union of Spain and Portugal. In modern usage ringgit is used almost solely for the currency. Due to the common heritage of the three modern currencies, the Singapore dollar and the Brunei dollar are also called ringgit in Malay (currencies such as the US and Australian dollars are translated as dolar), although nowadays the Singapore dollar is more commonly called dolar in Malay.^[8] To differentiate between the three currencies, the Malaysian currency is referred to as Ringgit Malaysia, hence the official abbreviation and currency symbol RM. Internationally, the ISO 4217 currency code for Malaysian ringgit is MYR.

The Malay names ringgit and sen were officially adopted as the sole official names in August 1975. Previously they had been known officially as dollars and cents in English and ringgit and sen in Malay, and in some parts of the country this usage continues. In the northern states of Peninsular Malaysia, denominations of 10 sen are called kupang in Malay and called pua̍t  in Penang Hokkien which is thought to be derived from the Thai word baht. e.g. 50 sen is lima kupang in Malay or 'samah' in Malay Kelantan dialect and gōo-pua̍t in Hokkien. The Tamil speaking communities in Malaysia use veḷḷi meaning "silver" in Tamil to refer to ringgit, while for sen, the word kācu (காசு) is used, from which the English word "cash" is derived.