Indian Bank Note – Design Evolution

By Savitha Hira

Images: courtesy‘The Paper & The Promise’ publication by Reserve Bank of India

Mahatma Gandhi series of notes in a changed
 colourscheme with additional security features. 

Everwondered why your rupee note looks different every few years? The change incolour, motifs, and size of the paper? Here’s a peak into the introduction andgrowth of paper money in India and how it has evolved to meet the challenges ofthe day!

Whilecurrency is one of the most mass produced commodities in the world, it is alsoso taken-for-granted that apart from a cursory nod of appreciation for a newcoin or note, and maybe a disparate comment or two on the changes made therein,no one really bothers to know or even see what the design change has effected.

  

       Hundis were indigenous financial instruments,  extensively

       usedas bills of exchange as well as promissory notes in India.

     Allegoryof Ganga appearing on a CommercialBank note.

 The art form marked an interblend of Indo-European motifs.

    Architecturalmotifs like the Thanjavur (Tanjore) Temple reminiscing

 past glory were depictedon the Rupees One Thousand note of Republic India

Papermoney, in the modern sense, traces its origins to the 18^th century,when notes were issued as ‘promises to pay’ in lieu of physical silver coinspossessing intrinsic/token value.

Thehistorical references to the introduction and growth of the bank note frombeing merely a promissory note in private circulation to a common token ofmonetary exchange are not only intriguing but also trace the evolution in itsdesign. Mainly attributable to the socio-political conditions that had a directrelation to the economy of the nation; bank note design has evolved from beingunifaced (one-sided printing) to being printed on both sides; from longreferences with payees’ name on each note to a generic monetary token; doingaway with status paraphernalia and incorporating enhanced security measures todeter forgeries.

   Anearly unifaced note of the Bank of Bengal

     Notescarrying the portrait of Queen Victoria - the first

 series of notes issued byGovt. of India (1861 – 1867)

      GreenUnderprint to Red Underprint designs replaced the Victoria

 Portrait notes andcarried enhanced security features.

Thedesign of the bank note traces important milestones in the country’ssocio-cultural, political and economic structure and has grown to interblend security considerations with aesthetics together with theintended messages the issuer may wish to convey. Thus, any design of bank noteattempts to blend the watermark, guilloche design, multi-tonal printing,intaglio printing, and the security thread etc. With advancement ofreprographic techniques, new features likeclear text security threads, windowedsecurity threads, fluorescent planchettes, holograms, anti-copier devices,magnetic readable inks, optically variable inks, etc. have been devised andvariably incorporated into the design of contemporary bank notes.

      Motifof an agricultural scene on a Rupee One Thousand Note of King George V series

The size of notes was reduced in 1967 along withdesign changes

 Notes issued in the mid 1970’s carried symbols of progress e.g., the

 Rupees Fivenotes issued in 1975 celebrated the Green Revolution.

Themotifs appearing on the Indian currency note reflect the changingsocio-cultural ethos and world-view of the times: buccaneering mercantilism,colonial consolidation, and domineering imperialism to symbols of nationalindependence followed by allegories of progress and finally in the latestseries, reminiscing Gandhian values.

 A Variation of the Hirakud Dam design depicted on

 notes issued in 1967 when thesize of notes was changed.

Notes with intaglio printing were first introduced in 1975.

 These notes markeda distinct change in motif and note design.

 The Rupees Ten & Twenty notes issued in 1975 marked a change

 in note designwith an emphasis on Indian art forms.