Inset's in Relation to Indian Currency

Significance of Inset's / Prefix's

Every Note issued one should be able to uniquely identify ... so to that extent Serial Number achieves this, however if you run out of serial numbers, you have 3 char prefix. In the older notes initially there was a Single Char Prefix that was increased gradually to 4 before settling to 3 Chars that one sees today.

The Change in Governors always means that one can restart the numbers [along with Prefix]. One can also play around with small design changes.

Devised quite early one way was to have different Insets in the number panel, these give the needed uniqueness to the notes printed early on. Although the practise existed before Independence, Post independence, the first usage of Inset was on the One Rupee Note in the Year 1955. The notes were signed by H. M. Patel. The usage was alphabetically for notes signed by different Secretaries and reached alphabet 'I', being signed by M. G. Kaul in 1976.

On the Five Rupee note the Inset was introduced from H. V. R. Iyengar in the Year 1957.

The Inset was an alphabet in upper-case in bold beside the serial number initially and later positioned beneath the serial number from 1976 onwards.

However towards 2005, with the amount of notes being printed grew, Inset alone was not sufficient to create the distinction and another identifier on the back, the year of printing was introduced to make it unique.

Insets are also used to determine which printing press has issued with notes [Similar to mint marks on the coins]. However each printing press uses more than one insets. It is not know which mint uses which Insets.



Bharatiya Note Mudran Nigam Pvt. Ltd., Salboni, West Bengal:
Inset 'R', Inset 'S', Inset 'T', Inset 'U' and Inset 'V'

Currency Note Press, Nashik (Nasik), Maharashtr :
Inset 'L', Inset 'M', Inset 'N', Inset 'P' and Inset 'Q'

Banknote Press, Dewas, Madhya Prades :
Inset 'E', Inset 'F', Inset 'G', Inset 'H' and Inset 'K'

Bharatiya Note Mudran Nigam Pvt. Ltd., Mysore, Karnatak :
No inset, Inset 'A', Inset 'B', Inset 'C' and Inset 'D'


From a collection point on view one can follow the following themes:

• Per Design [does not consider Governors, only designs]. These should be around 3-5 designs per denomination
• Per Design / Governor [Collect one ea of Governors. some governors have signed 2 designs, collect both]. Around 125 notes
• All Insets, Governors, Designs. Around 575
• Include Prefix on older notes ...