Photo by Naveed Ahmed on Unsplash
 

The Indian rupee(INR) is the official currency of the Republic of India. The Indian Rupee was a silver base currency during the 16th century making it one of the oldest and most famous currencies worldwide. Sultan Sher Shah Suri, the founder of the Sur Empire in India, introduced the first Indian rupee in the 16th century. 

Today, the Reserve Bank of India controls the currency's issuance. Notably, the rupee is subdivided into 100 paise with coins and banknotes in various denominations. Some banknotes and coins are rarely in use but are still legal.

In this brief piece, we will focus on the Indian Rupee. In particular, we are looking at 5 fascinating facts you probably did not know about the Indian Rupee. Let’s jump into it. 
 

The Indian Rupee Was A Silver Base Currency

The Indian Rupee was a silver-based currency from its formation up until the 19th century. The word rupee means ‘silver coin’. However, in 1873, a significant event that affected the value of the Rupee took place. The discovery of large quantities of silver in the United States and European colonies caused panic and resulted in the decline in the value of silver relative to gold devaluing the Indian standard currency. This event was known as ‘the fall of the rupee’. As a result, the Rupee’s value was pegged to the British pound and later to the US Dollar. Today, it simply floats on the forex market as the Reserve Bank of India trades it to maintain its value.

Indians can also trade it on the foreign market on their own. Notably, there are various brokers that support the Indian Rupee as a base account currency like Exness.com. 
 

There Are 17 Languages On The Indian Rupee

There are 17 languages on the Indian Rupee to avoid confusion due to language diversity. Remember that India has 780 different languages. On one side of the language panel, the amount is denoted in English and Hindi. On the other side of the language panel, there are 15 other languages. The other languages include Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Opiya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. 
 

Each Rupee Note Has a Distinct Colour and size

Each Indian Rupee denomination has a distinctive colour and size. The Indian Reserve Bank introduced this new currency scheme in 2016. The colours and sizes for the different denominations are as follows:

• The 100 rupee note is lavender and is 142 mm × 66 mm in size
• The 10 rupee note is brown and has a size of 63 mm × 123 mm in size
• The 200 rupee note is bright yellow and is 66 mm × 146 mm in size
• The 500 rupee note is grey and is 66 mm × 150 mm in size
• The 2000 rupee is magenta in colour and has a size of 66 mm × 166 mm
• The 50 rupee note is blue in colour and has a dimension of 66 mm × 135 mm
   

Rupee banknotes have Features To Prevent Counterfeit

Most people in India use cash as a means to buy goods and services. The high dependency on cash may lead to the circulation of counterfeit currency in the economy. The Government put in place measures to help prevent such occurrences. There are various enhanced security features on the banknotes that the government introduced. The features include Micro-lettering, intaglio print, fluorescent ink, optically variable ink, watermark, and a see-through registration device. The Government also withdrew the circulation of the Mahatma Gandhi series to curb counterfeiting.
 

Cotton is Used to Make Rupee Notes

The Reserve Bank of India uses a special mix of cotton, balsam, and some special dyes to produce the Indian Rupee notes. The actual portion of the materials is a secret to avoid counterfeiting. The use of cotton instead of paper made the Indian Rupee notes more durable and harder to produce fake notes. Some countries have followed this method of producing bank notes and orders the special material from India to print their own notes.
 

In Conclusion

Evidently, the Indian Rupee is a fascinating currency. We hope this brief piece gave you some insight into this interesting currency. However, there are many more fascinating facts about this currency worth exploring. Whether you are doing your research as an investor or simply for educational reasons, this currency has a fascinating history to explore.

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