How to identify pre-2005 currency notes

This note has the year of printing clearly printed in the middle of the bottom row on the backside.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced its plans to withdraw all currency noted issued before 2005. Financial experts believe that the move is largely aimed at removing fake or counterfeit currency embedded into the financial system as well help uncover the big black market currency in the country. While the motives of RBI are unquestionably good, there has been some quantum of confusion amongst the general public as to whether the notes they have would need replacement or not. Read on to find out if the currency notes in your pocket or ones stashed in your locker needs to be changed.

Identifying Pre 2005 Currency Notes: Currently the Reserve Bank of India prints currency notes in the denomination ofRs. 5, Rs. 10, Rs. 20, Rs. 50, Rs. 100, Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000. All the notes printed before the year 2005 do not have the year of printing marked on it. All currency notes printed post 2005 have is year of printing clearly printed in the middle of the bottom row on the backside of the note. If your bank note has no year of printing on the back, it means the note is printed before 2005 and needs to be exchanged with the bank as per the RBI deadline. All notes with the year of printing indicated on the currency note would stay in operation as all of them are posted after 2005.

This note has the year of printing clearly printed in the middle of the bottom row on the backside.

Possible Reasons for Withdrawal:

The possible reasons for the withdrawal of old currency is more to do with streamlining the number of currency variants than anything else. Of course the government is worried about the inflow of fake currency and hopes to tackle it by using all notes printed post 2015 which are far more technically superior and difficult to print for fake currency mongers.

How to Exchange Old Currency Notes:

So now that you have identified your currency notes and shortlisted the ones that need to be changed, a simple exchange procedure is revealed by the press release of the Reserve Bank of India. First things first, there should be no reason to panic whatsoever as the RBI has clearly stated that all old notes would continue to be completely legal and can be exchanged at any bank after April 1, 2014.

An old (pre-2005) note without the year of printing. (RBI website)

All public sector as well as private banks have been asked to create a dedicated exchange counter where both account owners as well as non account owners of that bank or branch can exchange their old currency notes for new ones. These exchange counters will become operation from 1st April 2014.If you have a large amount of old currency notes with you, you may want to exchange them, before 30th June 2014. So why is this date important? All exchanges done before 30th June would be unconditional. For any exchange of more than ten pieces of old Rs 500 or Rs 1000 notes after that date would require identity proof and address to be shared with the bank if you are a non customer of that bank.

In Indian so far there has been no official declaration regarding the lifespan of a currency note.