Prefix, Inset and Serial Number Syntax of Mahatma Gandhi Banknotes of India

The denominations of Rs.1000, Rs.5000 and Rs.10000 were demonetised by the Indian Government on 16th January 1978. The highest denomination of legal tender was the Rs.100 banknote for nearly ten years. There was a need for a higher denomination banknote.

On 2nd October 1987, the first Mahatma Gandhi note of Rs.500 was released . However, the design of Rs.500 in the Mahatma Gandhi new series was released in October 1997.

The new series of Mahatma Gandhi Banknotes of denominations Rs.10 and Rs.100 were released in 1996 and Rs.50 denomination notes were released in 1997. The Rs.1000 was released in the year 2000 and Rs.5 & Rs.20 in 2001. All these had additional security features, with a new identification feature to assist visually impaired persons in identifying the denominations.

Rs.5 - Mahatma Gandhi Series :

The denomination of Rs.5, the printing of which was suspended, was re-introduced in the Ashoka Pillar design and the Mahatma Gandhi new series was released on 25th May 2001 having the portrait of Mahatma Gandhi in the watermark.

Rs.5/- released during 2001

Obverse

Reverse

Rs.10 - Mahatma Gandhi Series :

A new series of Rs.10 banknotes of Mahatma Gandhi Series was issued on 1st June 1996 having additional security features. The watermark having the Portrait of Mahatma Gandhi.

Rs.10/- released during 1996

Obverse

Reverse

Rs.20 - Mahatma Gandhi Series :

The denomination of Rs.20 was introduced in the Mahatma Gandhi series during 2001. The watermark was having the Portrait of Mahatma Gandhi.

Rs.20/- released during 2001

Obverse

Reverse

Rs.50 - Mahatma Gandhi Series :

A new series of Rs.50 banknotes of Mahatma Gandhi Series was issued on 14th March 1997 having additional security features. The watermark having the Portrait of Mahatma Gandhi.

Rs.50/- released during 1997

Obverse

Reverse

Rs.100 - Mahatma Gandhi Series :

A new series of Rs.100 banknotes of Mahatma Gandhi Series was issued on 1st June 1996 having additional security features. The watermark having the Portrait of Mahatma Gandhi.

Rs.100/- released during 1996

Obverse

Reverse

Rs.500 - Mahatma Gandhi Series :

The first Mahatma Gandhi note of Rs.500 was released on 2nd October 1987. The purpose was to contain the volume of Rs.100 notes in circulation, while the banknote had the Portrait of Mahatma Gandhi, it was issued with the watermark of Ashoka Pillar. Other than this release, the Rs.500 was issued only in the Uniface series which was demonetised in 1946.

Rs.500/- released on 02-10-1987

Obverse

Reverse

Subsequently in 1997, the new design of Rs.500 notes in the Mahatma Gandhi series was introduced during October 1997, in which the Ashoka Pillar watermark was replaced with the Portrait of Mahatma Gandhi.

Rs.500/- released during 1997

Obverse

Reverse

Rs.1000 - Mahatma Gandhi Series :

The Rs.1000 was released for the first time in the year 2000 having the Portrait of Mahatma Gandhi as the watermark.

Rs.1000/- released during 2000

Obverse

Reverse

The following are the main highlights of the prefix and serial number syntax of the current Mahatma Gandhi notes:

For notes of 5, 10 & 20, the first 3 characters are the prefix and the next 6 are the serial numbers. The first 2 characters of the prefix are a numeral and the 3rd is the alphabet. The next six characters are the serial numbers which begin from '000001' to '1 million'. For example: 00A 000001 - 00A 1000000. The next series would be 01A 000001 - 01A 1000000, and so on..
For denominations of 50, 100, 500 & 1000, the first 3 characters are the prefix and the next 6 are the serial numbers. The first character is a numeral and the next 2 characters are alphabets followed by the 6 digit serial number which begins from 000001 - 100000.
For Ex.: 0(Zero)AA 000001 - 0AA 1000000; the next series 1AA 000001 - 1AA 1000000 and so on..
There have also been issues having inset A, B, C, E, F, G, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T. Not all denominations have all the insets. From 2005 onwards, the year of issue is also printed in the bottom centre on the reverse of the note. In the prefix, only twenty alphabets are used. No prefix with alphabet 'O', 'I' & 'J' are used as these are confused for numerals. Also alphabets X, Y & Z are not used to round the number of prefixes to twenty or multiple of ten for accounting purposes. The practice of year of printing of the year of issue on the reverse of the note began in 2005. The year of issue was necessitated since the volume of notes that were printed would one day exhaust the first 3 characters of the prefix. Therefore, from year 2006, the series commenced with 00A or 01A all over again.

Inset:

The volume of banknotes printed in India are huge which necessitated the use of inset which in the case of Indian Banknotes are Alphabets. This inset is a capital letter and appears on the number panel. There are four different currency press that print notes for the Reserve Bank of India . Each of the four currency printers are allotted a separate set of inset letters for their internal identification purposes. For security reasons, the Reserve Bank of India does not reveal which inset letters are assigned for which printing press from where it originates. As in the case of the prefix, only twenty alphabets are used as insets. The alphabets that are excluded are I, J, O, X, Y, Z.
Insets used by different printing press for ROI notes:

The following insets have been assumed to be allotted to the four Printing press that print notes for the RBI. There is no official notification from RBI for security reasons, the inset allocation has been ascertained by the printer's name on the reams from the issued notes. It needs to be mentioned that all insets are so far not been used in one or all denominations of notes printed so far.

1. MYSORE : Plain & Inset A, B, C, D.

2. DEWAS : Inset E, F, G, H, K.

3. SALBONI : Inset L, M, N, P, Q.

4. NASIK : Inset R, S, T, U, V.

Rs.500/- - Inset 'E'

Obverse

Reverse - '2007' printed on reverse

Star Series:
From the year 2006, the Reserve Bank of India issued notes with a * (Star) after the first 3 characters or prefix followed by the six digit serial number. These were used as replacement notes for errors in printing.These were issued initially in denominations of 10, 20, 50. From 2009 star or replacement notes were issued for Rs.100 also.

The star series notes are identical to the existing banknotes in every respect except in the serial number where a * (star) is added in between the prefix and the serial number. Earlier to this, no replacement notes existed.For example 65B*441993 or 9AK*019993.

Rs.10/- -Inset 'L' - Star Series

Obverse

Reverse - '2009' printed on reverse