The central government has decided to print Re. 1/- currency notes in order to overcome the acute shortages for change coins.
RBI prints currencies of denomination Rs. 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, 1000. 5000. And 10,000.
Denominations of Re 1 & Rs. 2 are made as coins. (Hence, printing of notes was stopped). Subsequently, printing of currency note for Rs. 5 was also stopped and Rs. 5 coin was made.
However, the currency notes of Rs. 1. 2 & 5 are still not in wide circulation. Coins of smaller denominations are circulated to the level of 57%. However, their total value constitutes to be only 7%. Moreover, their average life is around 1 year.
Printing costs are also high. So, they were changed into coin forms. Printing of Re. 1 was stopped in 1884. Printing of Rs. 2 was stopped in February, 1995, and Rs. 5 in November, 1995.
However, currently there is an acute shortage of change, the central government has taken a decision to start printing Re. 1/- again.
The previous currency note of Re. 1 was in dark blue colour.
The new Re. 1 currency notes will be in pink & green colours.
The denominations of currency notes from Rs. 2 onward will carry the print of ‘Reserve Bank of India’ in English & Tamil. It will also bear the RBI governor’s signature.
However, for the denomination of Re. 1, the prints of ‘Bharath Sarkar’ in Hindi and; Government of India’ in English will be seen. It will bear the signature of the secretary of Finance Department.
The clear details of why and how many of Re. 1 currency notes will be printed has not yet been made
There were Rs. 4.4 Crores worth of Re. 1/- denomination in circulation. They are in circulation along with the Re. 1 coins.
It is estimated that Rs. 2.07 Crores worth of Re. 1/- currency notes are in circulation until March, 2002 as per the RBI report released on June, 2002.