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Currency chronicles

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The Currency Note Exhibition at the Reserve Bank of India is being held as part of its Platinum Jubilee Celebrations. We also decided to drop by next door, at the Monetary Museum, to find out why King George VI had to spin 45 degrees for us to beat the Japanese

Okay, so museum visits are for pre-pubescent kids, geeks and the PhD population. A few steps into the Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Museum will drive away misconceptions.

Bright, airy and inviting exhibits with user-friendly inputs, courtesy some seriously inspired planning, design and R&D by the National Institute of Design in tandem with RBI's archival department has ensured that this museum is refreshingly different. Soon you are left gawking at its gilt-edged, treasured wonder walls that give you a fascinating lowdown of India's monetary might, as you steamroll down the ages, from BC to AD.

The Currency Note Exhibition is housed in a space adjacent to the Monetary Museum in RBI's Amar Building. Pics/Shadab Khan

History counts
For 75 years, the Reserve Bank of India has been safeguarding India's money. No easy task this, which was precisely the idea behind floating a platform to showcase this vast reserve. This museum, a first of its kind in India, was opened to the public on January 1, 2005. Here, you will come across mind-boggling information, from the evolution of money through the barter system to the birth of coinage, to bank notes and paper money.u00a0

Commemorative coins released to mark the golden jubilee of the 1942 Quit India Movement

Pulses and seeds were used as money in the BC era

We promise... to be user-friendlyu00a0
With floor markings that guide you through each of the six sections, there are plenty of delightful discoveries along the way. Section 1 deals with earlier concepts of money, when pulses and bronzed jewellery were traded for money. Well-lit displays ensure the tiniest details don't go unnoticed. Next up is a documented chronicle on Indian coinage against a timeline. Rows of Mughal and Maratha coinage, seals from the Middle Ages vie for
attention. Section 3 deserves mention for an unbelievable stash of promissory notes, Bills of Exchange and Hundies (localised financial instrument used instead of a bill of exchange).

The paper money section is an insight into India's power as a trading, financial giant in the early ages until independence and later. Particularly interesting was how during World War II, the Japanese tried to destabilise Indian currency, resulting in huge forgeries. As a result, the RBI had to change the watermark and overall design so that the side profile of King George VI transformed into a frontal portrait. The 5th and 6th
sections give you a crash course in currency awareness and a detailed look at the RBI.

Look out for the commemorative coins section, machinery that destroyed forged money and weighing scales from a time when seeds were used as money. Simple times, even simpler systems.

RBI Currency Note Exhibition on till April 1, at Amar Building, Sir PM Road, Fort. Monetary Museum open from 10.45 am to 5.15 pm (Weekdays). Closed on Sundays, bank holidays and public holidays.

Currency note issued in Arabic for one of India's princely states

Currency notes
Next door within the same building, the Currency Note Exhibition is currently underway. This is for those blokes who get a kick from checking the fine print on every watermark or how many Indian languages grace the typical Indian note. Giant-sized replicas of every important change highlight the emergence of denominations, design and safety measures that the big daddy of Indian currency instituted. Lucidly explained footnotes ensure the visitor isn't lost while trying to figure why the Ashoka Pillar replaced King George VI's portrait or when the Indian currency note size was reduced.

Dates matter
Milestones in the money trail
1938: Rs 5 note was issued with language panel on the reverse.
1944: Introduction of security thread for the first time in any Indian note.
1949: Replacement of King George VI's portrait with the Ashoka Pillar of Sarnath in Re 1 note.
1949: Reserve Bank of India nationalised.
1960s: Enhanced security features like watermark, guilloche (engraving technique using a precise intricate repetitive pattern) designs, intricate designs and printing like rosettes, ornaments and geometrical lines, multi-coloured tints and under prints and the security thread.
1981: Motto "Satyameva Jayate" introduced under Ashoka Pillar.
1994: Printing of Re 1 note discontinued.