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RBI/2026-27/108 June 09, 2026 The Chairman / Managing Director / Chief Executive Officer Madam/ Dear Sir, Withdrawal of old series of banknotes issued prior to 2005: Consolidation of instructions The Reserve Bank of India follows a policy of phasing out certain series of banknotes from time to time with a view to introduce banknotes with upgraded security features, in alignment with standard international practice of withdrawing old series banknotes. Accordingly, it was decided on January 23, 2014 that all old series of banknotes issued prior to 2005 would be completely withdrawn from circulation, and banks were advised to extend all necessary cooperation to the members of public for the withdrawal exercise to be carried out in a smooth and non-disruptive manner. 2. Based on a review, it was decided that from July 01, 2016, the facility of exchanging the pre-2005 banknotes would be available only at the 19 RBI Issue Offices1. 3. As advised at Paragraph 3 of the circular dated January 23, 2014, banks shall continue to ensure that pre-2005 series banknotes are not re-issued through ATMs or over-the-counter transactions. Such notes shall be sorted and deposited in currency chests under the Linkage Scheme or forwarded to the nearest RBI Issue Office for disposal. 4. Pre-2005 series banknotes continue to be legal tender. 5. This consolidates the instructions issued earlier on the subject, as detailed hereunder2 Yours faithfully (Sanjeev Prakash) 1 Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Belapur, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jammu, Kanpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, New Delhi, Patna and Thiruvananthapuram
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