The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will issue bright yellow-coloured Rs 200 denomination banknotes on August 25, the central bank today said.

In a notification, the banking regulator said, new Rs 200 notes will be issued “in the Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series, bearing signature of Dr. Urjit R Patel, Governor, Reserve Bank of India from select RBI offices, and some banks”.

The new denomination has Motif of Sanchi Stupa (from Madhya Pradesh) on the reverse, depicting the country’s cultural heritage. "The base colour of the note is Bright Yellow,” RBI said on its website.

“Introduction of a new currency denomination and design is done keeping in consideration various factors like ease of transactions for the common man, replacement of soiled banknotes, inflation and the need for combating counterfeiting,” RBI said.

Post demonetisation in November 2016, RBI had introduced new Rs 500 notes and for the first time Rs 2,000 denomination notes. Reports have suggested that Rs 2000 notes will be gradually phased out.

Initially, the new Rs 200 note will not be available at ATM kiosks. Disbursing the note through ATMs will need recalibration. The notes, thus, will be disbursed through bank branches across the country, just like the Rs 10, Rs 20, Rs 50 and coins of other denominations.

The salient features of Rs 200 note are:

- On the front

It has see-through register with denominational numeral 200, also written in Devnagari, has a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi at the centre, Micro letters of ‘RBI’, ‘भारत’, ‘India’ and ‘200’.

Dimension of the banknote will be 66 mm × 146 mm.

It also has windowed security thread with inscriptions ‘भारत’ and RBI with colour shift. Colour of the thread changes from green to blue when the note is tilted.It further has Mahatma Gandhi portrait and electrotype (200) watermarks and a number panel with numerals growing from small to big on the top left side.

On the back

It has Motif of Sanchi Stupa, Swachh Bharat logo with slogan, the year of printing of the note on the left and the denominational numeral २०० in Devnagari.

For visually impaired

It has intaglio or raised printing of Mahatma Gandhi portrait, Ashoka Pillar emblem, raised identification mark H with micro-text ₹200, four angular bleed lines with two circles in between the lines both on the right and left sides.

To ease facilitating exchange

Moreover, RBI said that to achieve the optimal system of currency that would minimize the number of denominations while increasing the probability of proffering exact change, especially at the lower end of denominations, there is a logical need to introduce the missing denomination of Rs 200, which will make the present currency system more efficient. Provision of the new denomination, therefore, would facilitate exchange, particularly for the common man who deals with denominations at the lower end, it added.

The optimal system of denominations of currency (coins and notes) is one that would minimize the number of denominations and concurrently increase the probability of proffering exact change. So, what should be the optimal mix of currency denominations? Many countries have opted to use a near variation of the Renard Series, i.e., 1:2 or 1:2.5 ratio between adjacent denominations of currency, which means that the denomination should be twice or two and half times of its preceding denomination.

Such a ratio allows exchange of value ordinarily in a maximum of three denominations. In India, we have currency denominations of ₹ 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 2000. As such, in the lower end of the denomination series, ₹ 200 is the missing one.