Since Demonetisation of the higher denominations of Rs.500 and Rs.1000, the government has various steps to avoid counterfeiting and introduced many security features for the new notes. But in haste to print these new notes, the RBI misprinted and now there are two different Rs. 500 notes in the market. This case came to notice when an individual took to twitter to express his woes on 21st November 2016.
The RBI issued a statement on on Wednesday, December 14, that both versions will be valid.Despite these misprints, the RBI has said these are valid and can be used. And for those who find it difficult to transact in these notes, they have given the option to exchange these at the nearest bank. The statement read, “They were meant to replace the Demonetised currency, but some new 500-rupee notes are causing some confusion because of printing errors.”
In a rush to print and bring notes into circulation, an unspecified number of notes of Rs. 500 denomination been misprinted and have errors. This has created confusion in minds of people about validity and genuinity of the ones with errors. As counterfieting notes is a prominent issue in India their genuinity was in doubt.
In the statement the RBI said, “There are three most important differences in these new notes.
(i) The way the guarantee declaration has shifted to almost superimpose on the security thread in some notes.
(ii) In few notes there is a visible shadow of Mahatma Gandhi’s face.
(iii) The position of the Ashoka Pillar lion is also in wrong place and some of the numbers on the note is in the wrong place.
The RBI has also assured that exchanging these misprinted notes will not have any relation to exchanging the old demonetised notes at the bank.
