Some Facts Regarding Indian Rupee (ভারতীয় রুপী সংক্রান্ত কিছু তথ্য)

• The Indian rupee symbol '' (officially adopted in 2010) is derived from the Devanagari consonant "र" (ra) and the Latin letter "R". 

• The first series of coins with the rupee symbol was launched on 8 July 2011.

• The current series of banknotes (which began in 1996) is known as the Mahatma Gandhi series.

• The printing of  5 notes (which had stopped earlier) resumed in 2009.

• As of January 2012, the new '' sign has been incorporated into banknotes in denominations of 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1,000.

• In January, 2014 RBI announced that it would be withdrawing from circulation all currency notes printed prior to 2005 by 31 March 2014. The deadline was later extended to 1 January 2015.

• The first Reserve Bank of India notes were issued with the portrait of King George VI of Rupees 5 in January 1938.

• Sir Osborne Smith (April 1, 1935 to June 6,1937) was the first Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.

• Sir James Braid (Second Governor)(July 1, 1937 to February 17, 1943) was the first governor of  the Reserve Bank of India who signed bank note.

• Sir Chintaman D. Deshmukh (August 11, 1943 to June 30, 1949) was the first Indian Governor of Reserve Bank of India.

• Sir Benegal Rama Rau (Fourth Governor)(July 1949 to January 1957) was the longest serving Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.

• During the tenure of H.V.R Iyengar (March 1, 1957 to February 28, 1962), India shifted to decimal coinage.

• In 1967, P C Battacharya (March 1, 1962 to June 30, 1967) authorized the reduction in size of the 5, 10 and 100 Rupee notes to reduce the costs of paper and printing. This size is still currently in circulation.

• Indian Rupee notes of denomination 2, 5, 10 and 100 were reissued to commemorate the birth centenary of Mahatma Gandhi, which were reissued on August 24, 1970 all of which bear the signature of B. N. Adarkar (May 4, 1970 to June 15, 1970).

• S. Jagannathan (June 16, 1970 to May 19, 1975) introduced Indian Rupee notes of denomination Rs. 20 and Rs. 50, which bore his signature.

• During the tenure of K. R. Puri (August 20, 1975 to May 1, 1977), the big 1000 Rupees notes were issued for the last time before demonetization in 1978.

• M. Narasimham (May 2, 1977 to November 30, 1977) was the first reserve bank employee to be promoted to the post of Governor.

• Rs 1000, Rs 5000 and Rs 10000 notes and the gold auctions were demonetized during the tenure of I. G. Patel (December 1, 1977 to September 15, 1982).

• Amitav Ghosh (16th Governor of Reserve Bank of India)(January 15, 1985 to February 03, 1985) was the shortest serving Governor with tenure of just 20 days.

• During the tenure of R. N. Malhotra (February 04, 1985 to December 21, 1990), Rs. 500 note was introduced.

• During the tenure of C. Rangarajan (December 22, 1992 to November 21, 1997), the new series of Mahatma Gandhi Banknotes of denomination Rs. 10, Rs. 50 and Rs. 100 were released along with the new Rs. 500 note with security thread and identification mark for the visually impaired introduced.

• During the tenure of Bimal Jalan (November 22, 1997 to September 05, 2003), notes of Rs.1000 denomination was reintroduced and the issue of Rs. 2 notes was stopped. 

• The practice of printing the year of issue on the reverse of the note began in 2005.

• During the tenure of Y. V. Reddy (September 06, 2003 to September 04, 2008) in the year 2006, the “*” (Star) series of replacement notes were introduced for the first time in Rs. 10, Rs. 20 and Rs. 50 denominations.

• Star or replacement notes were issued in Rs.100 denomination for the first time in year 2009 when D Subba Rao (September 05, 2008 to September 04, 2013) was the Governor of RBI.

• The printing of  1 notes (which had stopped on November, 1994) resumed in February, 2015.