This image of a 1,000 rupee banknote bears an ‘artistic imagination’ label; India’s federal bank denied issuing new 1,000 rupee banknotes

This article is more than one year old.
Published on October 30, 2019 at 09:45
2 min read
By AFP India

An image has been shared repeatedly in multiple Facebook and Twitter posts alongside a claim that India’s federal bank has issued new 1,000 rupee banknotes. The claim is false; the banknote in the image bears a message which states it is based on “artistic imagination”; India’s federal bank denied issuing new 1,000 rupee notes.

The image was published here in a Facebook post on October 17, 2019.

The post’s caption states: “New Rs 1000 note released today by RBI.”

RBI refers to India’s federal Reserve Bank of India.

Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered the withdrawal of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes from circulation in November 2016 in a bid to tackle widespread corruption and tax evasion, as reported by AFP here.

Soon after, new 500 and 2,000 rupee notes were introduced -- but 1,000 rupee notes were phased out.

The same image was also published on Facebook here, here, here and here, on Twitter here and here alongside an identical caption.

A video was also published here on YouTube on February 14, 2019, alongside a similar claim.

The claim is false; in the top right-hand corner of the banknote in the misleading posts, black text states ‘Artistic Imagination’.

AFP has highlighted the message with a white box in the screenshot below:

The RBI has not published any press release on its website here about the 1,000 rupee banknotes.

RBI spokesperson Yogesh Dayal told AFP by phone on October 24, 2019, that the social media posts about the 1,000 rupee banknote were “false”.

"All rumours about launch or circulation of 1,000 rupee notes on social media are false and the central bank has not made any announcement in this regard either,” he told AFP.

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