10 Rupees

The R.N. Malhotra–signed notes from the opening of this series coincide with a period when the Reserve Bank was quietly tightening its printing standards following counterfeit incidents in the early 1980s — a problem significant enough to prompt the government's 1983 high-security currency paper initiative at Hoshangabad. The shift from large to small serial numbers under Venkitaramanan's tenure is a mechanical change reflecting press upgrades at the Nashik and Dewas security presses, and it creates three collectible signature-format combinations within a single Pick number.