The Malaysian ringgit is the official currency of Malaysia and it has been the only official currency of the country since 1967. This currency has no plural form so whether it’s 1 or 100 ringgit you always stick to the same word. The currency was formed back in 1967 when Malaysia did away with the Malaya and British Borneo Dollar in exchange for their own named currency.
The ringgit can be divided into 100 individual sen (roughly the same as cents) when looking for the ringgit on exchange rate sites you should look out for the ISO code MYR. When this currency is written down it will be followed by the letters RM (ringgit Malaysia) although outside of the country itself most people use the code MYR. The $ sign is no longer used in Malaysia unless talking about foreign currencies.
The History of the Ringgit
The term ringgit has been use in Malaysia for many years even though it has only been their official form of currency since the mid-1960s. It has been a general term for money in Malaysia since the 16th century and it translates from the Malay language roughly as ‘jagged’ which is thought to be a reference to the serrated, almost jagged, edges of the Spanish silver dollars that were in circulation back in the 1500s. Other currencies have been used in the country over the centuries including the Brunei dollar and the Singapore dollar and both of these also became colloquially known as ringgit, whilst foreign currencies remained ‘dollar’.
The words ringgit and sen became properly adopted for the new currency across Malaysia in around 1975 but you will still here the use of cents and dollars in areas where English is the main language spoken. When the switch to the new currency was made in the 1960s, all coins and notes were exchanged and replaced, aside from the $10,000 note and the older coinage and notes were phased out over time.
When the first Malaysian ringgit were issued they began with denominations of 1, 5, 10, 20 and 50 sen and 1 ringgit, with the sen coins made from copper clad steel and the ringgit coin made from cupronickel until 1983 when it was replaced with a copper-zinc tin version. By 2012 the 1 sen c oin was dropped and new 5 and 10 sen coins were issued in stainless steel with a 20 sen in nickel brass and a 50 sen coin in nickel brass clad copper.
When the first notes were issues in 1967 they came in the 1, 5, 10, 50 and 1000 ringgit denominations with new 20 and 500 ringgit notes released in 1982. For a short time, the 1-ringgit note was dropped, from 1993 to 2000, when it was once again introduced.
Malaysian Ringgit Conversion Rates
Today your Malaysian ringgit is worth approximately £0.17 or $0.24 and conversely £1 is worth approximately RM5.85 whilst $1 is worth RM4.10.
The ringgit isn’t a popular casino currency but there are some sites which offer it amongst their range and you can explore those sites below. Malaysian players who want to enjoy casinos which don’t offer RM should convert their currency before playing.