New Rs.10 and Rs.50 banknotes soon with rupee symbol

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said Thursday it will soon issue Rs.10 and Rs.50 denomination banknotes incorporating the rupee symbol which was officially adopted in 2010.

The new banknotes bearing the signature of RBI Governor D. Subbarao will have rupee symbol with inset letter ‘L’, in the Mahatma Gandhi Series-2005.

The year of printing 2012 will be printed on the reverse of the banknote.

“The design of these notes, to be issued now, is similar in all respects to the Rs.10 and Rs.50 banknotes in Mahatma Gandhi Series-2005, issued earlier,” the RBI said in a statement.

All the banknotes in the denomination of Rs.10 and Rs.50 issued by the RBI in the past will continue to be legal tender, the central bank said.

A symbol for the Indian rupee was officially adopted in 2010. It is derived from the Devanagari consonant Ra with an added horizontal bar.