New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will shortly issue new bank notes of Rs.10 denomination.

The new Rs.10 notes will be in the Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series, and will bear the signature of RBI Governor Dr. Urjit R. Patel, the Reserve Bank said in an official statement, on Friday (Jan.5).

The new denomination notes will have motif of the Sun Temple and the Konark on the reverse side, depicting the country’s cultural heritage. The base colour of the notes is chocolate brown and they will have other designs, geometric patterns aligning with the overall colour scheme, both at the obverse and reverse, the RBI said.

All the banknotes in the denomination of Rs.10 issued by the RBI in the earlier series will continue to be legal tender, it is said. The move to reintroduce lower denomination notes in a new design comes after the Government’s plan to get rid of counterfeiting.

The Central Bank has already printed around 1 billion pieces of the new Rs.10 note, according to reports. The last change in design in the old Rs.10 note was made in 2005. In August last year, RBI had introduced the new Rs.200 and Rs.50 notes under the Mahatma Gandhi series.

Post this, after the announcement of demonetisation of old 500 and 1,000 rupee notes, the RBI also introduced new 500 and pink coloured 2,000 rupee notes.

RBI data show currency in circulation was Rs.16.71 trillion as on Dec. 22. This is about 94.4 percent of the Rs.17.7 trillion that was in circulation on Nov.4, 2016.