Next time you withdraw money from an ATM, check not just the amount, but also whether the currency notes dispensed are legal tender or not.
For, a disfigured and larger-than-normal size ₹500-note that has landed in the unique collection of Shyju Kudiyirippil, a numismatist and public relations officer at the Angamaly-based Little Flower Hospital, indicates that they need not always be.
The note has its extended size folded inwards, possibly to make it fit for dispensation through the ATM. Lixon Pallikkal of Kalady who received the note from an ATM in Ernakulam contributed it to the unique currency collection of his friend Mr. Shyju.
Earlier this year, Mr. Shyju had received a strange-looking ₹2,000-note with an extra projection, similar to a tail. He feels the ‘abnormal’ currency notes may be the result of the Union government’s urgency to overcome the shortage of currency notes in the wake of the demonetisation drive. There is another new ₹500-note in his collection, which is conspicuous by the absence of the image of Mahatma Gandhi. Besides, he also has in his collection some other notes with anomalies — a ₹50 -note with the image of Indian Parliament without the national flag on top, notes without serial numbers, and two conjoined notes that look like a butterfly, a ‘one-and-a-half’ currency bill of ₹1,000 that has half of another note of the same denomination attached to it.
Mr. Shyju has built his unique collection over years through his membership in numismatist societies and his friendship with bank officials. He keeps a separate category of currency notes without the mandatory picture of Gandhi. When the Union government released one rupee note after a gap of over two decades, Mr. Shaiju collected notes with printing errors from among those newly-minted ones.
