“I promise to pay the bearer the sum of…” will never be the same again – at least in the new series of Rs 200, Rs 100 and Rs 50 notes that will soon be available across India. The reason: The promissory clause, which appears on all Indian banknotes, will now be done in offset and not intaglio printing on the three new notes, leaving a “fairly large scope” for counterfeiting.

Revealing this to The Quint, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) sources said that the central bank’s basic objective is to cut production costs for the three banknotes (Rs 200 will have an orange hue and the Rs 50 notes will be turquoise blue) in the face of the “huge expenditure incurred” for printing the new Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 notes following last November’s demonetisation decision.