Thursday, July 30, 2009

How to detect fake currency (Rs.100 and Rs. 500 notes)?

The Times of India carried an alarming headline on 7/31/2009 titled "Watch out, your Rs 500 note could be fake".

In a nutshell the report claims that currency to the tune of Rs. 169,000 crore is in circulation in the Indian system (Not sure how they precisely estimate this. Or is it sensationalism at its best?), and that even banks and establishments are struggling to tell the original from the fake.

If this is true, it can be devastating to the economy and individuals. If you are like me, and would like to avoid dealing with cash as much as you can, then you have less to worry about. You can write checks or use debit cards or credit cards, and forget worrying about this issue.

Nevertheless, in India it is impossible to lead a life without handling hard cash. Most of the vegetable vendors or news papers or even certain shops require the use of cash. Most establishments have a minimum spend limit within which you can't use any of your cards.

I thought, it would be a good idea for common people like you and me to know and detect fake currencies to the best of our abilities. We don't want to carry fake currencies or get arrested for our negligence.

As I was searching around, I was able to find films officially produced by RBI, in public interest in their site itself.

Out here, you find very short films that describe the security features of Rs. 100/- and Rs. 500/- notes.

For some reason, I was not able to view the movies on my FireFox browser (ver 3.5), but it worked fine on IE V7.0.

What better way to learn this than from the RBI, and that too in audio-visual format? Check it out and let me know.

What methods do you adopt to detect fake currencies? I'm curious to know. Let me know your comments.

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