New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India, in its latest release, has assured citizens that currencies with the much-debated (*) marks were legal tenders and not fake.
Clarifying the purpose of the symbol on the notes, the RBI clarified that the “star” mark was placed before the bank note’s serial number to identify it as a reprinted or replaced note.
A note is reprinted or replaced when it is defectively printed in a packet of 100 pieces of serially-numbered banknotes.
A star (*) marked banknote is identical to any legal bank note, except it contains a star mark between the prefix and the serial number. It was initially introduced in 2006 as a part of the Annual Policy Statement for 2006-07 and was printed on Rs 10, Rs 20 and Rs 50 denominations in the Mahatma Gandhi Series-2005. From 2009 onwards, the initiative was extended to Rs 100 notes as well.
The central bank issues fresh notes that are numbered from 1 to 100. Each banknote comes with a unique serial number along with a prefix. The star (*) is placed between the prefix and the unique serial number. The defectively printed notes are replaced by the star series notes carrying the same number.
Also read: Banks recovered over Rs 10 lakh crore from defaulters in past 9 years: Centre