10 000 Rupees

The Government of India's high-denomination notes of this period were instruments of large-scale commercial settlement, not everyday currency. The 10,000 rupee denomination placed it firmly in the hands of banks, trading houses, and the colonial treasury apparatus — ordinary circulation was never the point. Notes of this series were demonetized in 1946 under a broader effort to curb black market activity and unaccounted wealth that had accumulated during the war years.

Pick 13 is genuinely rare in any condition. The 1946 demonetization required holders to declare and surrender high-value notes within a tight window, and most were subsequently destroyed.