Otha Roova Nottu ............. (the One Rupee Note)

Even in the modern World, where people live peacefully in ‘credit’ and dealing with credit cords and Online payments – the importance of paper currency cannot be ignored.  Commonly, money simply means currency and coins. Coins in India are presently being issued in denominations of 50 paise, one rupee, two rupees, five rupees and ten rupees. Coins up to 50 paise are called 'small coins' and coins of Rupee one and above are called 'Rupee Coins'. Coins in the denomination of 1 paise, 2 paise, 3 paise, 5 paise, 10 paise, 20 paise and 25 paise have been withdrawn from circulation with effect from June 30, 2011 and are, therefore, no longer legal tender. The Government of India has the sole right to mint coins. The responsibility for coinage vests with the Government of India in terms of the Coinage Act, 1906 as amended from time to time.   Coins are minted at the four India Government Mints at Mumbai, Alipore, Saifabad(Hyderabad), Cherlapally (Hyderabad) and NOIDA (UP) The rupee notes are issued in the denomination of : 1000; 500; 100; 50; 20; 10; 5;2 & 1 .....  ..... as most would know – the One rupee note is different from others.  Other than the noted fact that Re 1 note bears the signature of Secretary of Ministry of Finance – all other currency notes of India  have that of Governor of RBI – all notes other than One rupee note have printed on them – ‘Guaranteed by the Central Government’’  and “I promise to pay the bearer the sum of .... Rupees” ........ The Currency Department in RBI attends to the core statutory function of note and coin issue and currency management. This involves forecasting the demand for fresh notes and coins,  printing and distributing them. Recently, there has been some discussion on whether Govt. Of India can continue to print Re.1 currency note, which is put to rest by Law Ministry statement that Government of India has all the powers to print currency notes of this denomination. The Government of India also has the sole right to mint coins of all denominations. Since the RBI was of the view that with the repeal of Section 2 of the Currency Ordinance, the Government of India is not empowered to issue note of denominational value of one rupee, the law ministry opinion was taken. The Law Ministry in its opinion stated that the Coinage Act of 2011, which consolidates the laws relating to coinage and the mints, does not bar the Government of India from printing one rupee notes. Section 4 of the Act provides that the central government may authorise minting of coin of denomination not higher than Rs. 1,000, it said, adding that the definition of coin in the Act makes it clear that Government of India one rupee note is included in the definition of coin.  The Act defines a coin as “made of any metal or any other material stamped by the Government or any other authority empowered by the Government in this behalf and which is a legal tender including commemorative coin and Government of India one rupee note,” the ministry said in its opinion. “Further, apart from the metal, the coin may be made of any other material,” it said. The ministry said while repealing the Currency Ordinance, 1940, “necessary provisions for inclusion of Government of India one rupee note within the meaning of ‘Coin’ have been consciously incorporated in the Coinage Act, 2011. Further, the RBI, as per Section 24(1) of the RBI Act, 1934, is not empowered to issue bank note of denomination of value of one rupee.” “Central government is not precluded to issue one rupee Government of India note under the Coinage Act, 2011. The dimension, design, material and standard weight of such One Rupee Note have to be prescribed by the Central Government in terms of Section 4 and 5 of the Coinage Act, 2011,” the opinion said. It may not be in circulation now, but the currency ordinance and right to print still exist.  Incidentally, one could observe that in the photo – both Re.1 and Rs.2 bear the signature of Dr Manmohan Singh, who was our PM from 2004 to 2014.  The Economist born in Gah worked in various positions including UN in 1966; some of the key posts held include – advisor to Ministry of Foreign Trade,  Secretary in Finance Ministry and Governor of Reserve Bank of India. With regards – S. Sampathkumar
11^th Sept. 2014.