Many thanks for the heads up Roma Sorry however to hear you and your brother got stung

Hi all,been around the boards lurking and contributing as taximania since 2007.
Had to add a 1 to my name as I could not log in but hey ho hey ho

Now known as Taximania1

Saw your report on your earlier holiday thread regarding forgeries and I believe the note maybe just fine.
I think you just have an older version of the 500.

I have 4 500 notes and one of them is indeed as you say.

It has no 500 mark to the left of the watermark just a small flower in its place.
The Ghandi watermark is there but as you say it has no 500 written in the watermark and the writing to the back of the note is more colored towards a black ink than a brown.
However it does have raised writing on the note, it does have a metal strip running through the center unbroken even if it is a slightly different strip than the new ones which are fatter and visible without holding up to the light.
If you also look very carefully at the internal metal strip under light it carries the BMI lettering on the metal itself.
The note also has the circle that you can feel for visually impaired to the far left of note.
The lettering on the note can be felt by touch
It addition it has the 500 watermark vertically on the green strip to the right of Ghandis head.
This is why I believe this to be a genuine note , just an older version of the 500.

Discuss....

All the best Taxi:

Hi all,been around the boards lurking and contributing as taximania since 2007.
Had to add a 1 to my name as I could not log in but hey ho hey ho

Have sent you a pm.

Thanks for that, Taxi. We asked a friendly trader to test the 1000 notes and he thought they were fine.

It was the fact that a restaurant refused my 500 note that alerted us to this. He says there are a lot of bogus notes around and I need to get the 500 ones checked. The lady in Luma supermarket also checked the notes carefully when I bought stuff there and she confirmed there were dud notes being passed over.

Just checked this one under uv light machine at office and it appears fine.
Also passes the counterfit marker pen test

So I am as sure as I can be that these are just the older versions of the 500 note.
But obviously I am noT an expert on indian currency so just apply the usual caution

All the best pal

Taxi ;

Relied to romas report before I saw this about counterfiet money

There are fakes of all denominations especially the much used 100rp. The easiest way to tell is to look at the bottom of the note on the reverse side and in the middles should be the year of printing the note. It is missing from the fakes. The dotted line is not as pronounced and on the front left hand side is what looks like a large flower which is actually quite small on the fake.
Just looked through our notes and we have 50's and 100's which are fakes - nobody has bothered about them except the Croc shop in Calangute who puts everyone of them under a lamp.
Was in Luma getting change and the first 100 she gave was fake as was the second and third - in the end OH said forget it, just give me my change and they disappeared during the day to be replaced the following day.
Must have been a different girl in Luma - we use it all the time and never looked at ours.

In Mumbai there were posters all over the place with this information on but never seen one in Goa. Our friends Indian cook showed us what to look for but then said - don't worry about them nobody else does!!!

one of the easy ways to spot a forgery is on the opposite side to the head side all indian banknotes have the date printed on them,forgeries dont have this

the best way to spot fake notes is simple. now just follow these easy steps..step one fold the note across gandhis gasses....step two now using the side of the hand bash the note sharply....step three open the note up and check if gandhis glasses have cracked or smashed....if not the note is genuine.......if glasses broke its a fake............simples :

Hi waterproof.

So they can create all the necessary watermarks as described in my post above,create the circle for visually impaired,make the writing stand out so you can clearly feel with finger and yet after PAINSTAKINGLY completing all these masterful forgery type deeds you say they then cant be bothered to print a basic date on the bottom of note. I am not buying that one.

Still believe the notes are just older versions and not counterfeit

Excellent piece of forensic work Bluemoon

Pride in battle

I'm with the last posters on this one. Over the years I'm sure we've all had notes refused in shops etc. simply because of a slight tear or what not. I can believe that now the traders are quite comfortable with forgeries sloshing about in the system. I'm pretty sure they'le be doubly diligent and would not be accepting anything the least dodgy. It was bad enough in the past getting them to take genuine notes just because they were too old or dirty or torn. I think the last suggestion re the problem being old versions still in circulation is correct, and is causing a lot of the perceaved problems.
Alan

hi Waterproof no one is disagreeing about them most likely being old issue,but they would still have the date on ,and we know the forgeries dont

not re counterfeit notes, but it appears that 5 rps/10rps notes are being phased out.
I got quite a few 1,2 ,5 and 10 rps coins this year, all new ones......and a few Newtons tokens!