1. In November 1994, printing of Re 1 note was stopped mainly due to higher cost and for freeing capacity to print currency notes of higher denomination. After a gap of over 20 years, Re 1 note has been released in the country. 2. First paper currency The process of issuing paper currency started in the 18th century. Private banks like Bank of Hindustan, Bank of Bengal, the Bank of Bombay, and the Bank of Madras were among the first to print paper money. It was only after the Paper Currency Act of 1861 that the government of India was given the monopoly to print currency. 3. The highest denomination note ever printed by the RBI was the Rs 10,000 note in 1938 and again in 1954. These notes were demonetized in 1946 and again in 1978. 4. The RBI can issue banknotes in the denominations of 5000 and 10,000, or any other denomination that the Central Government may specify. But, there can't be banknotes in denominations higher than 10,000 as per the current provisions of the RBI Act, 1934. 5. What's the rupee made of? Not paper! Your currency is composed of cotton and cotton rag. 6. Commemorative coins in India have been issued on various occasions. The first 75 rupee coin was issued in 2010 to celebrate 75 years of Reserve Bank of India. In 2011, 150 rupee coins were issued to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore. The first 1000 rupee coin was announced in 2012, issued to commemorate the 1000 years of Brihadeeswarar temple in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. 7. Coins can be issued up to the denomination of Rs. 1000 as per Coinage Act, 2011. 8. 15 languages appear in the language panel of banknotes in addition to Hindi prominently displayed in the centre of the note and English on the reverse of the banknote. 9. Rupee symbol In 2010, rupee got a new symbol ₹, designed by D.Udaya Kumar. The symbol was derived from Devanagari letter "र" (ra) and is a combination of the Latin letter 'R' and Devanagari letter 'र'. The parallel line in the symbol is drawn to make it look like the tricolor of the Indian national flag. 10. For the visually impaired There is an identification mark (different geometrical shapes) on the left hand side of each note in the form of raised print (intaglio) - a diamond for Rs 1000, circle for Rs 500, triangle for Rs 100, square for Rs 50, rectangle for Rs 20 and none for Rs 10 - to help the visually impaired identify the denomination. 11. Mystery of the vanishing rupee In 2007, an acute shortage of coins gripped the eastern Indian city of Calcutta, which saw shopkeepers begging change from beggars and buying coins at prices above their face value. Ex: A woman selling stacks of 100 rupee coins (USD$ 2.5) for 120 rupees (UDS$ 3), counts notes at a bus stand in Calcutta, India Friday, June 15, 2007. 12. When Re 1 coin was worth Rs 5 One reason cited for this acute shortage in Calcutta was: coins being melted down and smuggled to Bangladesh where they were turned into razor blades, ornaments, fountain pen nibs, metal idols. The one rupee coin was actually worth Rs 35, for every single rupee coin was being melted into 5-7 blades, as per new reports. 13. Cardboard tokens as coins To counter the coin shortage in the East, workers in tea gardens in states bordering Bangladesh, were encouraged by the owners to accept brown-coloured cardboard tokens instead of the metallic coins. The cardboard tokens were made of the same size as the coins they meant to represent, with similar values marked on them. 14. Rupee vs dollar in 1947 The 'fact' that had been floating around that the rupee was equal to a US dollar in 1947 is but a myth. At the time of independence (and till 1966), India’s currency was pegged to British pound, (and the exchange rate was Rs 13.33 to the pound). The pound itself was pegged to $4.03. That means, the $ to INR rate would be somewhere around Rs 4. 15. Notes are printed at four printing presses located at Nashik, Dewas, Mysore and Salboni. Coins are minted at the four mints at Mumbai, Noida, Kolkata and Hyderabad. 16. Each mint carries its unique identifier shape/sign at the bottom of the coin (beneath the year). Delhi mint - dot Mumbai mint - diamond Hyderabad mint - star Kolkata mint - No mint mark 17. A rare 5-rupee note, dated January 5, 1916, issued by the Government of India in Karachi was sold for £3,100 ($5,297 U.S.) in a London auction conducted by Spink last year. Karachi was then part of India, until 1947. 18. During the British rule, and the first decade of independence, the rupee was divided into 16 annas. Each anna was subdivided into 4 paisas. In 1957, decimalisation occurred and the rupee was divided into 100 naye paise (Hindi/Urdu for new paisas). After a few years, the initial "naye" was dropped. 19. The Rs 5-note was the first paper currency issued by RBI in January 1938. It had the portrait of King George VI. 20. Initially, Pakistan used British Indian coins and notes simply over-stamped with "Pakistan". New coins and banknotes were issued in 1948. 21. The 500 rupee note was introduced in 1987 and 1000 rupee note in 2000. The Indian 2000-rupee banknote (₹2000) was released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 8 November 2016 after the demonetisation of ₹500 and ₹1000 banknotes and has been in circulation since 10 November 2016. 22. A one-rupee coin and above can be used to pay/settle any amount or sum. However, a 50 paise coin cannot be used to pay/settle any amount above Rs 10. 23. Ever wondered how the old notes are destroyed? According to the data obtained by RTI activist Manoranjan Roy, 11,661 crore notes lost their usable value (between 2001 and now) and were shredded to bits, to be later balled or gummed together, and be reborn as coasters, paper-weights, pen stands, key chains. In 2010-11 alone, 1,385 crore notes worth Rs 1,78,830 crore were destroyed. 24. In 2013, a Mumbai-based jewelry chain launched Sachin Tendulkar gold and silver coins on the occasion of 'Akshay Tritya.' The cost of a 10-gm was Rs 34,000 (US$620) (Image above) In 2014, Britain’s premium luxury goods brand East India Company issued an exclusive legal tender gold coin worth 12,000 pound sterling (about Rs 12 lakh) in honour of Sachin Tendulkar. 25. The tooled one rupee coin (with the portrait of King George VI, i.e., the Head on both the sides) in the 1975-cult classic 'Sholay', was bought by a Bollywood fan for Rs 26000 at an auction last year. Ref: www.msn.com
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