New security feature on currency notes to foil forgers

To make Indian currency less prone to counterfeiting, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has started printing Rs 100 notes on which the last six numerals of the nine-digit currency note number will be in ascending print size from left to right.

For example, if a Rs 100 note has the serial number 9AA 123456, the ‘9AA’ part will have uniform print size. However, in the six-digit number portion, the print size for ‘2’ will be larger than ‘1’, print size for ‘3’ will be larger than ‘2’ and so on with ‘6’ being in the largest font size. All other security features for this new series of Rs 100 notes will remain the same. The central bank will issue all currency notes, from Rs 10 to Rs 1,000 denominations, on which the numbering will be in this new ascending print size pattern, also called ‘exploding font’. “Printing the numerals in ascending size is a visible security feature in the banknotes so that the general public can easily distinguish a counterfeit note from a genuine one,” a release from the central bank said. “The Reserve Bank, in consultation with Government of India, has been improving security features of Indian banknotes so as to make their counterfeiting difficult and make it easy for the public to identify genuine banknotes,” it said.

This new security feature is part of RBI’s continuing endeavour to improve security features of currency notes to make them more robust. Going forward, the currency notes will have moving images or variation in colour, micro-perforations etc. on security threads on each currency note. The moving images and colour variations with distinct contrasts are visible only when the viewing angles for the currency notes are changed.

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