2017-11-18 Sat

Do you know in which year 1 rupee note was issued with the portrait of King George VI?

It was 1944 when the first 1 rupee note was issued featuring a portrait of King George VI.

Here are some salient features of these 1 Rupee notes:

This one rupee banknote was machine made. It is blue and green in colour and the size of a note is 6.3X10 cm. The obverse side of this note depicts a coin with a portrait of George VI facing towards the right in the top left area. The reverse side depicts a crown on the watermark window, reverse of the silver coin with date 1940 and language panel in the centre which shows 1 rupee denominations in 7 Indian languages.

It was for the first time an inset “A" was used in an Indian Bank Note. The series commenced with Prefix 'A-0 ' and the ended with 'Z-99 ' with the exclusion of Prefix 'I ' and ‘O’. The notes issued in this series had serial numbers in black ink.

After the completion of the first series, a new series was introduced again, starting with Prefix 'A-0 ' and ending with 'W-99 ‘, with the exclusion of Prefix 'I ' and 'O'. The serial number from this series was printed in Green ink.

However, there were complaints by users that the Green Serial Numbers were fading. Hence, there was a split in Prefix 'W ‘, where the Serial Number changed from Green to Black. The exact split in Prefix from Green to Black is to be determined. However, we will find Prefix 'W ' with Serial Number in Black unto 'W 99 ' as the whole 'W ' series was issued. There were no further issues of Rupee 1 beyond Prefix 'W ‘, by which time, India got its Independence.

There is also a King George VI Portrait Note of Rupee 1 that has serial numbers in Red. The serial numbers were in Red because it was issued after 15th August 1947. The note with Serial Number in Red had a single Prefix 'D ' only.

All notes issued by Government of India and the Reserve Bank up to 1947 were tenable currency till they were demonetized or withdrawn from circulation on 27th October 1957.