Get ready for bright yellow Rs 200 currency notes: RBI to introduce today

Central bank confirmed, that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will issue new bright yellow coloured Rs.200 denomination banknotes today i.e August 25.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will launch new Rs.200 notes today.

In a recent report, the banking regulator said, “New Rs.200 notes will be launched in the Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series, with the signature of Dr. Urjit R Patel, Governor, Reserve Bank of India from select RBI offices, and some banks.”

The new denomination has picture of Sanchi Stupa (from Madhya Pradesh) on the reverse, depicting the nation’s cultural heritage. As mentioned on RBI’s website, “The base colour of the note is Bright Yellow and it also has other design patterns which compliments and are in-line with the colour scheme of the note.”

In a recent report, RBI confirmed that “Introduction of a new currency denomination and design is done keeping various factors in consideration like ease of transactions for the public, replacement of soiled banknotes, inflation and the need for combating forging,”

Soon after demonetisation in November 2016, RBI had introduced new Rs.500 notes and for the first time Rs.2000 denomination notes came into picture. However, reports have suggested that Rs.2000 notes will be gradually phased out.

Initially, no ATM kiosks will provide Rs.200 new note. Distributing the note through ATMs will need recalibration. However, the new notes will be available in bank branches across the country, just like Rs.10, Rs.20, Rs.50 notes and coins of other denominations.

Some of the salient features of Rs.200 note are:

On the front

It has see-through register with denominational numeral 200, also written in Devnagari, has a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi at the centre, Micro letters of ‘RBI’, ‘भारत’ , ‘India’ and ‘200’.

Dimension of the new note will be 66 mm × 146 mm. On the windowed security thread once can see inscriptions ‘भारत’ and RBI with colour shift. When the note is tilted, colour of the thread changes from green to blue. In addition to this, it has Mahatma Gandhi’s portrait, a number panel with numerals growing from small to big on the left side over the top and electrotype (200) watermarks can also be seen.

On the back

It has Motif of Sanchi Stupa, Swachh Bharat logo with slogan, the year of printing of the note on the left and the denominational numeral २०० in Devnagari.

For visually impaired

On the new note, one can see Ashoka Pillar emblem, raised identification mark H with micro-text ₹200, Mahatma Gandhi’s portrait in intaglio, four angular bleed lines with two circles in between the lines on both the sides – right and left.

To ease facilitating exchange

Moreover, RBI said that there was a logical need to introduce the new denomination of Rs.200 to achieve the optimal system of currency that would minimize the number of denominations while increasing the probability of proffering exact change, especially at the lower end of denominations. This will enable the present currency system work more efficiently. The launch of the new denomination, therefore, would simplify exchange, especially for the common man who deals with denominations at the lower end.

New Rs.200 currency note: Important things you need to know

An ideal system of denominations of currency is one that would not only lessen the number of denominations but would also facilitate the increment in the probability of proffering exact change. Many countries have opted to use a near variation of the Renard Series, i.e., 1:2 or 1:2.5 ratio between adjacent denominations of currency, which means that the denomination should be more than two times its preceding denomination.

Such a ratio allows exchange of value ordinarily in a maximum of three denominations. In India, we have currency denominations of ₹ 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 2000. So, if we will consider the initial section of the denomination series, ₹ 200 is the missing one.