The first European coins to circulate widely in the region were Spanish "pieces of eight" or "cob", their crude appearance resembling stones, hence the word jagged.

[11] An early printed source, the Dictionary of the Malayan Language from 1812 had already referred to the ringgit as a unit of money.

[13] 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.

The Spanish-American silver dollar brought over by the Manila galleons was the primary currency for international trade, used in Asia and the Americas from the 16th to 19th centuries; it was eventually called the ringgit.

In November 1967, five months after the introduction of the Malaysian dollar, the pound was devalued by 14.3% from US$2.80 to US$2.40, leading to a collapse in confidence for the sterling area and its demise in 1972.

The two denominations hereby ceased to be legal tender and were only exchangeable directly at the central bank; at the time of the demonetization, RM500 and RM1,000 notes were each worth approximately US$130 and US$260 respectably, based on the 3.80 MYR/USD peg rate.

[17] [better source needed] The ringgit lost 50% of its value against the US dollar between 1997 and 1998, and suffered general depreciation against other currencies between December 2001 and January 2005.

[22][23][24] According to Bank Negara, Malaysia allows the ringgit to operate in a managed float against several major currencies.

The initial stability of the ringgit in the late-2000s had led to considerations to reintroduce the currency to foreign trading after over a decade of being non-internationalised.

In a CNBC interview in September 2010, Najib Tun Razak, the then Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Malaysia, was quoted in stating that the government was planning the reentry of the ringgit into off-shore trading if the move will help the economy, with the condition that rules and regulations were put in place to prevent abuses.

[28] Political uncertainty following the country's 2008 general election and the 2008 Permatang Pauh by-election, falling crude oil prices in the late-2000s, and the lack of intervention by the Central Bank of Malaysia to increase already low interest rates (which remained at 3.5% between April 2006 and November 2008)[29] led to a slight fall of the ringgit's value against the US dollar between May and July 2008, followed by a sharper drop between August and September of the same year.

The ringgit experienced more acute plunges in the value since mid-2014 following the escalation of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal that raised allegations of political channeling of billions of ringgit to off-shore accounts, and uncertainty from the 2015–16 Chinese stock market turbulence and the effects of the 2016 United States presidential election results.

After appreciating as high as 3.86 to the US dollar as of early April 2018, the value dropped to around 4.18 MYR/USD by the end of October 2018 following increasing trade war tensions in response to the China–United States trade war, selloff panic from other emerging markets, as well as uncertainty in economic policy following an upset by the Pakatan Harapan coalition in the 2018 general election.

The 50 sen coin is the only one in the series to undergo a redesign, a minor 1971 modification on its edge to include "Bank Negara Malaysia" letterings.

The older coins remain legal tender as of 2019, but have steadily declined in number and are seldom seen in circulation in Malaysia.

Changes include the depiction of items of Malay culture on the obverse, such as a local mancala game board called congkak on the 10 sen and the wau bulan or "moon kite" on the 50 sen among other things, as well as the inclusion of a Hibiscus rosa-sinensis (Malay: Bunga Raya), the national flower of Malaysia, on the upper half of the reverse.

Other changes in the series include the diameter, the colour on the 20- and 50 sen coins (from silver to yellow) and a redesign on the obverse (featuring different motifs for each denomination), fourteen dots symbolising the thirteen states and the collective Federal Territories, and five horizontal lines indicating the five principles of Rukunegara.

On 16 August 1972, Central Bank of Malaysia adopted official new spelling system of the national language, Bahasa Melayu, into the printing of its currency notes while retaining the designs.

In 1986, the mark for the blind on the upper left hand corner was removed, and a security strip was added to all denominations except for the 1 ringgit.

This was due because of the Asian monetary crisis of 1997 when huge amounts of ringgit were taken out of the country to be traded in these notes.

The newly designed RM50 banknote retains the predominant colour of green-blue, but is designed in a new theme, dubbed the "National Mission", expressing the notion of Malaysia "[moving] the economy up the value chain", in accordance to Malaysia's economic transformation to higher value-added activities in agriculture, manufacturing and services sectors of the economy.

The dominant intaglio portrait of the first Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Tuanku Abdul Rahman, is retained on the right and the national flower, the hibiscus, is presented in the center on the obverse of the note.

Design patterns from songket weaving, which are in the background and edges of the banknote, are featured to reflect the traditional Malay textile handicraft and embroidery.

[48] Security features on the banknote include a watermarked portrait of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, a security thread, micro letterings, fluorescent elements visible only under ultraviolet light, a multi coloured latent image which changes colour when viewed at different angles, and a holographic stripe at the side of the note and an image that is visible only via a moiré effect to prevent counterfeiting using photocopiers.

[49] In May 2011, Central Bank of Malaysia had announced that they will introduce a new series of banknotes to replace the current design that has been in circulation for around 15 years.

All banknote denominations in the new series will retain the portrait of the first Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Tuanku Abdul Rahman.

[51] The banknotes are supplied by Crane AB of Sweden, Giesecke & Devrient GmbH of Germany, Oberthur Technologies of France and Orell Fussli of Switzerland.

On 14 December 2017, Central Bank of Malaysia announced the issue of two paper-polymer hybrid commemorative banknotes in conjunction with the sixtieth anniversary of the Signing of the Federation of Malaya Independence Agreement.

[56] The 600 ringgit note is the largest legal tender banknote in terms of size to be issued in the world, measuring 370mm by 220mm.