Recently the internet was flooded with pictures of 500 rupee notes claiming that the note with a star (asterisk) mark is fake and the banks are returning them.
But, the confusion was cleared by RBI. These notes are a part of the circulation. The star symbol is simply an identifier that means that the note is a replaced or reprinted banknote.
This means that the note was originally printed with a defect, and it was later replaced with a new note that has the star symbol. The RBI has mentioned that these notes are a legal tender and the first series of the notes with a star symbol started circulating back in 2006. Here are all the details.
What Is the Viral Information Spreading on the Internet?
There were many tweets and Facebook posts surrounding the internet that claimed that these 500 rupee notes were fake and they encouraged the public to not receive these notes.
Further, these social media users also urged other people to spread this information without any fact checks.
Recent coverage by Vishwas News on this topic mentions the viral picture by a Facebook user known as ‘Ramchandra Rajput’ in which he mentioned that a 500 rupee note with a star symbol was returned from IndusInd Bank and claimed that it is a fake note.
His social media post read: ”These 500 notes with * symbol have started circulating in the market since last 2-3 days. Such note was returned from IndusInd Bank yesterday. This is a fake note. Today also a friend received 2-3 such notes from a customer, but due to lack of attention, he returned them immediately. The customer also said that someone had given this note in the morning.
“Take care of yourself There has been an increase in the number of hawkers carrying fake notes in the market. Appeal – Please be a conscious citizen, so spread this message to as many of your brothers as possible so that they can avoid harm and avoid reckless thieves. Thank you,” it added.
Source: Vishwas.News
Source: The Quint
RBI’s Clarification
RBI clearly stated that these notes are legal and there is no need to worry. The organisation tweeted about the star notes on 27 July 2023 and the link followed in the tweet redirects to the RBI website’s press release which clearly states: “It has come to the notice of the Reserve Bank that the validity of banknotes with a Star (*) symbol present on the number panel has recently been the subject of discussions on some social media platforms.”
“In this connection, it is informed that the Star (*) symbol is inserted in the number panel of a banknote that is used as replacement for defectively printed banknotes in a packet of 100 pieces of serially numbered banknotes,” the press release adds.
Reserve Bank of India clarifies on Star Series Banknoteshttps://t.co/BFBYLbH8Ao
— ReserveBankOfIndia (@RBI)
July 27, 2023
Source: RBI
These notes were first in circulation in 2006 when RBI mentioned that it will issue a series of banknotes with stars and it started with the denominations of rupees 10, 20 and 50.
The press release from 2006 reads: “The Reserve Bank of India will soon issue Star series banknotes. These will be issued to begin with in Rs.10, Rs.20 and Rs.50 denominations in the Mahatma Gandhi Series-2005.”
“The Star series banknotes will look exactly like the existing banknotes of Rs.10, Rs.20 and Rs.50 but will have an additional character, viz., *(star) in the number panel between the prefix and the serial number,” it adds.
Source: RBI
In 2016, another press release from the organisation mentioned about the 500 rupee notes that they will have “inset letter E” and some of the notes of this series will have an additional asterisk character.
Here is what RBI mentioned: “The Reserve Bank of India will shortly issue ₹ 500 denomination banknotes in Mahatma Gandhi(New) series with the inset letter ‘E’ in both the number panels, bearing the signature of Dr. Urjit R. Patel Governor, Reserve Bank of India, the year of printing ‘2016’ and Swachh Bharat Logo printed on the reverse of the Banknote.”
“Some of the captioned banknotes will have an additional character ‘*’ (star) in the number panel in the space between the prefix and the number,” it adds.
Source: RBI
To conclude, the 500 rupee notes with a star symbol are not fake. They are simply reprinted banknotes that have been issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to replace notes that have been damaged or defective. It is important to research the official RBI website before making any claims about the currency as it can lead to panic.
Categories: Trends
Source: vcmp.edu.vn