These are fake notes. No Rs 5,000 note has been released by RBI

A photo was recently shared on Facebook claiming that Rs 5,000 currency note was about to be released by the Reserve Bank of India. The caption, originally in Hindi, read: “New note of five thousand rupees to be released very soon; RBI gave information”

Hyderabad: Fake Indian currencies going viral on social media from time to time is nothing new. Of late, coins of 75, 60, 150, 100, 20, 200, 1,000 and currency notes Rs 2, Rs 350, Rs 5, Rs 5,000 are doing the rounds on social media.

A photo was recently shared on Facebook claiming that Rs 5,000 currency note was about to be released by the Reserve Bank of India. The caption, originally in Hindi, read: “New note of five thousand rupees to be released very soon; RBI gave information.”

A fact-check by PTI found that several other users had shared the same photo with similar claims across social media platforms.

These were, however, found to be fake and baseless. No such announcement has been made by the RBI or the Ministry of Finance.

The photos circulating online were found to be photoshopped and edited to gain views and likes on the social media platforms. It is clearly visible that the notes are fake as some of the pictures contain same serial numbers as others, it said.

The Government of India though comes out with commemorative coins on important occasions. Also though the Reserve Bank of India has stopped printing Rs 2 and Rs 5 notes, these continue to be legal tender.

Moreover, the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section in RBI website clearly states that banknotes in circulation are of Rs 10, Rs 20, Rs 50, Rs 100, Rs 200, Rs 500, and Rs 2000.

Here’s is the link to the official website’s FAQ:

https://www.rbi.org.in/Scripts/FAQDisplay.aspx?Id=136

The central bank always notifies the public if it is releasing any new currency on its official website. It also publishes details and features of all the notes currently in circulation in the Paisa Bolta Hai website.

How to know which notes are fake and which are the real ones? Here are some of the features listed our by the Reserve Bank to differentiate the real from fake

Features of a real currency
● See through register with denominational numeral
● Latent image with denominational numeral
● Denominational numeral in Devangari
● Micro letters “Bharat’ (in hindi) and ‘India’
● Year of printing of the note on the left
● Swachh Bharat logo with slogan
● Language panel
● Motif of a monument

For visually impaired:
● Raised printing of Mahatma Gandhi portrait
● Ashoka pillar emblem
● Circular identification mark with microtext of denominational numeral on the right, angular bleed lines on both the left and right sides

RBI’s MANI app
The Reserve Bank of India has also launched a mobile-aided note identifier app named RBI MANI in 2020 to help visually impaired persons identify the authentication of the currency note.
It is available in over 11 languages, which include Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi and Urdu. However, this app does not detect counterfeit currency notes.