Examples of Some Interesting Old Notes of India

We frequently use Indian notes for our day-to-day transactions, but we rarely take an effort to learn about the history of Indian notes. The earliest notes of India were issued by Bank of Bengal, bank of Madras and Bank of Bombay. They were circulated for Bengal presidency, Madras presidency and Bombay presidency respectively. Did you know that currency notes in India were issued in unique denominations like 16 rupees, 4 rupees, 250 rupees, 1 gold mohur, 25 rupees, 8 rupees and company 5 rupees by Bank of Bengal? Similarly Bank of Bombay had released old notes of India of the denomination 5000 rupees as well. Bank of Madras had issued rare notes of India of the denomination 15 rupees.

Uniface Indian notes featuring a portrait of Queen Victoria, of the denomination 20 rupees were issued on 10th June 1864 and were made of handmade white paper. It depicted a profile portrait of Queen Victoria in a floral wreath. Other texts included 'Government of India'; Serial numbers with prefix - One letter and two numerals; Denomination in words and numerals appeared in Bangla and Persian; the name of Sub-Circle was overprinted. The Watermark featured the text GOVERNMENT OF INDIA, denomination in words and numerals in a rectangle, signature of the finance member of legislative Council - Sir James Wilson, and that of the Governor General Lord canning.

The 5 rupees old Indian notes featuring King George V featured 8 Indian Languages on the language panel namely, Urdu, Kaithi, Bangla, Burmese, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Gujarati. The watermark consisted of a star with rays, 'Govt/Of' in two lines and 'India' in wavy lines and a flag on the right.

The pink coloured 2 rupees note featuring King George VI were produced using machine made paper and featured the signature of JB Taylor. The 100 rupees rare notes of India from the princely state of Hyderabad featured the Urdu text Sarkar-e-Ali' which means Government Currency Note. It also had two five digit serial numbers, Royal Coat of Arms, Denomination in words in Marathi, Telugu, O.S. Rs. ONE THOUSAND and Kannada. Promise text, EK HAZAR SICCA OSMANIA, Date panel, For the Government in Urdu, signature; denomination in numerals in Siyaq, Marathi, Telugu, Kannada and English.

There are many other interesting and historically significant currency notes in India. Once you start researching, you will surely fall in love with them.