Do you have
‘One Rupee note’ in your purse now ?
There existed host of
little things which yielded big pleasure !-
salaries have increased, so also the purchasing power of the people –
not to speak of the price increase and inflation. Till a couple of decades ago, the salary day
represented the most awaited day of the month – on that day morning each Office
would draw cash from Bank [Insurance coverage for cash in transit drawn for
wages – from the Bank premises to the Insured premises and extending to cover
that unpaid cash that remained in the cashier’s till or office locker]. The
smell of hard currency, especially a new note would enthuse many. There were some who relished the salary cover
taking it home and starting the month only after some offering to God out of
the earned salary; there were some who started their expenses with a savings
and there were some who had their covers re-written to narrate a different tale
back home !!
In good olden days, there
were coins of smaller denomination of – 1,2,3 5,
10, 20 and 25 paise. Honestly,
how many children or those born in the present century, would have seen those
coins or handled them !!... from 30th June 2011, coins of
denomination of 25 paise (and below !!) ceased to be legal tender. The Government of India has the
sole right to mint coins. The responsibility for coinage vests with the
Government of India in terms of the Coinage Act, 1906 as amended from time to
time. The designing and minting of coins in various denominations is also the
responsibility of the Government of India. Coins are minted at the four India
Government Mints at Mumbai, Alipore(Kolkata), Saifabad(Hyderabad), Cherlapally
(Hyderabad) and NOIDA (UP). There is a
statue called Indian Coinage Act 1906, which was legislated to consolidate and
amend the law relating to Coinage and the Mint.
The coins are however, issued
for circulation only through the Reserve Bank in terms of the RBI Act. The rupee notes
[paper currency] are issued in the denomination of : 1000; 500; 100; 50; 20; 10;
5;2 & 1 ..... ..... as most would know – the One rupee note is
different from others. Other than the fact that Re 1 note bears the signature
of Secretary of Ministry of Finance – all other currency notes of India have
that of Governor of RBI – all notes other than One rupee note have printed on them
– ‘Guaranteed by the Central Government’’ and “I promise to pay the bearer the
sum of .... Rupees” ........
Recently, there was some discussion on whether Govt. Of India can
continue to print Re.1 currency note, which was put to rest by Law Ministry statement
that Government of India has all the powers to print currency notes of this denomination.
After a gap
of over 20 years, Re 1 note has been released in the country and it bears the
signature of Finance Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi. Firstpost reports that the note
was released at Shrinathji temple in Nathdwara, Rajasthan, on March 6 by
Mehrishi. Other currency notes in India bear the signature of RBI governor. The
colour of one Rupee Currency Note is predominantly pink green on obverse and
reverse in combination with others. On the obverse, the note carries bilingual
signature of Mehrishi.
Earlier last week, RBI had
said that it will soon put into circulation one rupee currency notes and would
be legal tender as provided in The Coinage Act 2011. Alongwith the circulation
of new Re 1 notes, the existing currency notes of the same denomination will
also continue to be legal tender. The re-launched one rupee notes will be made
up of 100 percent cotton rag content. It will weigh 90 grams per square metre
and have thickness of 110 microns. As watermarks, it will bear Ashoka Pillar
symbol in the window without words 'Satyamev Jayate', carry a hidden numeral in
the centre while hidden word Bharat (in Hindi) will be on the right hand side
of the note.
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. Printing of Rs 2 and Rs 5 notes
too were discontinued in 1995. Since then, only coins have been issued for
these denominations. ~ will Rs.2 & Rs.5 notes also be back in action ?
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
11th Mar 2015.
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