2 1/2 Rupiah Small change

Indonesia's 1961 small-change notes were issued to address a chronic shortage of coin in circulation — low-denomination metal currency had effectively disappeared from everyday transactions as rising commodity prices made hoarding profitable. Paper fractional currency was the stopgap. The 2½ rupiah denomination reflects the old Dutch colonial monetary conventions that persisted well into the independence period, the half-rupiah unit surviving in official arithmetic long after it had any practical meaning at street level.

Pick lists two signature varieties for this type; the B suffix here denotes the second pairing.