Just when the country was getting used to new notes in circulation from last year, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 30th May issued a press release announcing circulation of currency notes in one rupee denomination. The RBI release said “These currency notes are legal tender as provided in the Coinage Act, 2011. The existing currency notes in this denomination in circulation will also continue to be legal tender.” Last year in November, the government had introduced new Rs 500 and Rs 2000 as part of its demonetisation drive, with focus to crackdown on black money.

The one-rupee note which has always been issued by the central government was partially discontinued because of high printing cost as compared to their lives.
The new note will be of 9.7 by 8.3 cm in dimension and shall predominantly be pink green in colour in combination with other colours. The notes will bear signature of Shaktikanta Das, Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, as opposed to other currency notes bearing signature of the RBI governor.

The note will contain representation of one rupee coin with rupee symbol having floral design and the surrounding design being the picture of ‘Sagar Samrat’, the oil exploration platform. Along with that the year 2017 will be mentioned at the back of the note, the figure shown in international number.

Elaborating on the design the release said “the numbering shall be in black at right hand bottom portion of the Note in ascending size of numeral from left to right, while the first three alphanumeric characters (prefix) remains constant in size.”

himali@outlookindia.com