₹500 — Five Hundred Rupees
The artwork
Front: Mahatma Gandhi, from the 1946 portrait made at the Viceroy's House, set against pale olive guilloche and facing right. Above, the issuer's name in Devanagari and English with the central government's guarantee; below, the promise to pay five hundred rupees over the Governor's signature. The Ashoka Lion Capital sits at the right, a raised identification circle beside it, with the Reserve Bank seal and numerals in green at centre.
Back: The Red Fort at Delhi seen along its sandstone ramparts, the Lahori Gate and chhatris picked out in line engraving, the national tricolour flying above in colour — one of the few flashes of colour on the note. Captioned लाल किला / RED FORT. Left of it, the language panel giving 'five hundred rupees' in fifteen scripts; below, the Swachh Bharat spectacles logo and the year 2022.
In circulation
Issued from November 2016, when the old 500 and 1,000 rupee notes were demonetised overnight, this smaller stone-grey note became the workhorse of Indian cash. It remains legal tender and in daily use; the 2,000 rupee note that accompanied it was withdrawn from circulation in 2023, leaving this the largest denomination printed.
Details
- IssuerReserve Bank of India — guaranteed by the Central Government
- CurrencyRupee (₹)
- DenominationFive Hundred Rupees
- Collectedon the India journeys, 1992–2026
- SeriesMahatma Gandhi (New) Series, dated 2022
- SignatureShaktikanta Das, Governor
- WatermarkMahatma Gandhi portrait with electrotype 500
- SecurityWindowed security thread lettered 'भारत' and 'RBI', shifting green to blue when tilted; raised print and an intaglio identification circle for the blind
- Dimensions150 × 66 mm