'Star series' banknotes are legal tender: India central bank

"Since the last 2-3 days these 500 notes with * symbol have started circulating in the market," says a July 25 post on Twitter, which is being rebranded as 'X'.

It features an image of a 500-rupee note with the asterisk highlighted and goes on to claim: "Such note was returned from IndusInd Bank yesterday. This is a fake note."

Similar false claims were also shared on the social media platform here and here, as well as on Facebook.

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Screenshot of the false post taken on August 7, 2023.

The RBI, however, said the claim is false in a statement published on its website on July 27, 2023 (archived link).

Legal tender

"It has come to the notice of the Reserve Bank that the validity of banknotes with a Star (*) symbol present on the number panel has recently been the subject of discussions on some social media platforms," the central bank said.

"A banknote with a Star (*) symbol is identical to any other legal banknote, except that in the number panel a Star (*) symbol is added between the prefix and the serial number. The Star (*) symbol is an identifier that it is a replaced / reprinted banknote."

The statement links to an RBI information page about Indian currency which says the bank adopted a "star series" numbering system "for replacement of defectively printed banknote in a packet of 100 pieces of serially numbered banknotes" (archived link).

The 500-rupee "star series" banknotes had been in circulation as early as December 2016, according to an RBI press release issued at the time (archived link).

A representative for IndusInd Bank mentioned in the posts told AFP it accepts the banknote and "never refused it". The bank also reshared the statement from RBI on social media (archived link).

India's press information bureau also debunked the claim about the 500-rupee bill, citing the RBI (archived link).

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