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500 Rupees No Date, Yellow
| Issuer | Reserve Bank of India |
|---|---|
| Year | 2000-2004 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 500 Rupees (500 INR) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is dominated by an intaglio portrait of Mahatma Gandhi facing right at centre-right, captioned 'MAHATMA GANDHI' in English and Devanagari script below, set against a fine guilloche underprint in olive-yellow tones. To the left, a large ornate watermark window is flanked by the Ashoka Pillar emblem at lower left, with the large numeral '500' in colour-shifting ink at centre rendered over an intricate floral medallion. The Reserve Bank of India seal appears at lower right, with bilingual promise text and the Governor's signature below centre. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | भारतीय रिज़र्व बैंक 500 पाँच सौ रुपये FIVE HUNDRED RUPEES |
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| Comments |
The yellow intaglio shift that gives this note its collector nickname was an unintended consequence of RBI's mid-series color adjustment, introduced to improve machine-readability and distinguish the 500 from lower denominations in automated sorting. Bimal Jalan's tenure as Governor ran from 1997 to 2003, placing the earliest signature varieties firmly within India's post-1991 liberalization period, when currency volumes were expanding rapidly and the 500-rupee note was taking on real transactional weight for the first time.
Y.V. Reddy succeeded Jalan in September 2003. Notes bearing his signature with plate letters overlap the yellow and subsequent issues, making precise dating of individual specimens genuinely difficult without cross-referencing serial prefix data.