₹10 — Ten Rupees
The artwork
Front: No portrait: the Lion Capital of Ashoka from Sarnath stands at the right between two carved pillars, the state emblem that fronted every Indian note before Gandhi. The centre carries the promise to pay the bearer the sum of ten rupees in English and Hindi around a large ornamented 10, with RESERVE BANK OF INDIA and GUARANTEED BY THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT above. Serial V/14 444576 at both corners, and दस रुपये at lower right.
Back: The vignette that gives the series its name: a lateen-rigged coastal dhow under full sail on a choppy sea, hills behind, framed in a fine engraved oval. Down the left runs the language panel giving ten rupees in the official languages of India. Below the boat sits the Reserve Bank of India seal with its palm tree and tiger, and TEN RUPEES with दस रुपये close the panel.
In circulation
The dhow design served as India's ten-rupee note through the 1970s and 1980s, printed under successive governors and worn thin in daily use. It gave way in the 1990s to newer ten-rupee designs, and finally to the Mahatma Gandhi series note of 1996, which carried the portrait in place of the Lion Capital.
Details
- IssuerReserve Bank of India
- CurrencyRupee (₹)
- DenominationTen Rupees
- Collectedon the India journeys, 1992–2018
- SeriesTen rupees, "boat" reverse; serial prefix V/14
- SignatureR. N. Malhotra, Governor
- WatermarkLion Capital of Ashoka, in the blank panel at left