The Taka is the official currency of Bangladesh. Also, in neighboring India, speakers of Bengali and Assamese use the term taka to refer to the Indian Rupee.

History

The word is derived from the Sanskrit Tanka which was in ancient, and even in medieval times, a denomination of silver coin. The term Taka was widely used in different parts of India but, with varying meanings. In north India, Taka was a copper coin equal to two paisa and in the south, it was an aggregate of four paisa or one anna. It was only in Bengal where Taka was taken as a sliver rupee. However, in all areas of India, Taka was used laxly for money in general. But Bengal was the stronghold of Taka.

Rupee was introduced by the Turko-Afghan rulers and was strongly upheld by the Mughals and the British rulers. The Bengali people always called Rupee as Taka, be it of silver or of gold. Ibn Batuta noticed that, in Bengal people described gold coin (Dinar) as gold tanka and silver coin as silver tanka. In other words, whatever might be the metallic content of the coin, the people called it Taka. This tradition has been followed to this day in Assamese and Bengali speaking regions like Bangladesh, West Bengal and Assam.

Denominations

At present there are 8 different denominations of Taka: 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 and 500 taka. In late 90's, the government issued polymer (similar to the Australian dollar) based 10 taka notes as an experiment. However, these notes were not popular and were withdrawn later. At present, the 1 taka notes are gradually being replaced with coins.

One Taka is equal to 100 Paisa (often spelled Poisha). There are 1, 5, 10, 25 and 50 paisa, 1 taka and 5 taka coins. Among them, the 1, 5 and 10 paisa coins are almost totally out of circulation.

Circulation

The 1 and 2 taka notes are issued by the Government of Bangladesh. The rest of the notes are issued by Bangladesh's central bank, the Bangladesh Bank.