The (50) is a denomination of the

Indian rupee The Indian rupee ( symbol: ₹; code: INR) is the official currency in the republic of India. The rupee is subdivided into 100 ''paise'' (singular: ''paisa''), though as of 2022, coins of denomination of 1 rupee are the lowest value in use wh ...

. The present 50 banknote in circulation is a part of the

Mahatma Gandhi New Series The Mahatma Gandhi New Series of banknotes are issued by the Reserve Bank of India The Reserve Bank of India, chiefly known as RBI, is India's central bank and regulatory body responsible for regulation of the Indian banking system. It ...

of banknotes. However, 50 banknotes of the previous series (

Mahatma Gandhi Series The Gandhi Series of banknotes are issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as the legal tender of Indian rupee. The series is so called because the obverse of the banknotes prominently display the portrait of Mahatma Gandhi. Since its introd ...

) will continue to be legal tender. The 50 banknote denomination was first introduced by the

Reserve Bank of India The Reserve Bank of India, chiefly known as RBI, is India's central bank and regulatory body responsible for regulation of the Indian banking system. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Finance, Government of India. It is responsible for ...

(RBI) in 1975 as a part of the Lion Capital Series, which had the

Ashoka pillar The pillars of Ashoka are a series of monolithic columns dispersed throughout the Indian subcontinent, erected or at least inscribed with edicts by the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka during his reign from c. 268 to 232 BCE. Ashoka used the expressi ...

on the banknote. It was replaced by a watermark of

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

in the Mahatma Gandhi Series, in 1996.

Mahatma Gandhi New Series

On 10 November 2016, the Reserve Bank of India announced, a new redesigned 50 banknote was to be available as a part of the

. The note was officially announced on 18 August 2017 and now on circulation. On 18 August 2017, the Reserve Bank of India introduced a new 50 banknote in the Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series. However, 50 banknotes of the previous series will continue to be legal tender.

Design

The new version of the note has a depiction of

Hampi Hampi or Hampe, also referred to as the Group of Monuments at Hampi, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Hampi (town), Hampi town, Vijayanagara district, east-central Karnataka, India. Hampi was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire i ...

with Chariot on the reverse, depicting the country's cultural heritage. The base colour of the note is Fluorescent blue. The note has other designs, geometric patterns aligning with the overall colour scheme, both at the obverse and reverse. The dimensions of the banknote are measured at 135 mm × 66 mm.

History

Lion capital series

The 50 banknote in the Lion capital series was the highest denomination.

Design

The obverse design included the Lion Capital. The reverse design included an image of the

Sansad Bhawan The Parliament House ( IAST: ) in New Delhi is the seat of the Parliament of India. Its houses the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha which represent lower and upper houses respectively in India's bicameral parliament. At a distance of 750 meters ...

Mahatma Gandhi Series

Design

As of 2012, the new sign has been incorporated in revised versions of the 50 note. In January 2014 RBI announced that it would be withdrawing from circulation all banknotes printed prior to 2005 by 31 March 2014. The deadline was later extended to 1 January 2015, then to 30 June 2016.

Security features

The security features of the 50 banknote includes:RBI - 50 security features
/ref> *A windowed

security thread A security thread is a security feature of many banknotes to protect against counterfeiting, consisting of a thin ribbon that is threaded through the note's paper. Usually, the ribbon runs vertically, and is "woven" into the paper, so that it a ...

that reads 'भारत' (''Bharat in the

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental syste ...

script'') and 'RBI' alternately. *

Latent image {{citations needed, date=November 2015 A latent image is an invisible image produced by the exposure to light of a photosensitive material such as photographic film. When photographic film is developed, the area that was exposed darkens and forms ...

of the value of the banknote on the vertical band next to the right hand side of Mahatma Gandhi's portrait. *

Watermark A watermark is an identifying image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light (or when viewed by reflected light, atop a dark background), caused by thickness or density variations ...

of Gandhi that is a mirror image of the main portrait. *The number panel of the banknote is printed in embedded

fluorescent Fluorescence is the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation. It is a form of luminescence. In most cases, the emitted light has a longer wavelength, and therefore a lower photon energy, tha ...

fibers and optically variable ink. *Since 2005 additional security features like machine-readable security thread, electrotype watermark, and year of print appears on the bank note.

Languages

Like the other Indian rupee banknotes, the 50 banknote has its amount written in 17 languages. On the obverse, the denomination is written in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

and

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

. On the reverse is a language panel which displays the denomination of the note in 15 of the 22

official languages of India There is no national language in India. However, article 343(1) of the Indian constitution specifically mentions that, "The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script. The form of numerals to be used for the official pur ...

. The languages are displayed in alphabetical order. Languages included on the panel are Assamese,

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub ...

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

Kashmiri Kashmiri may refer to: * People or things related to the Kashmir Valley or the broader region of Kashmir * Kashmiris, an ethnic group native to the Kashmir Valley * Kashmiri language, their language People with the name * Kashmiri Saikia Baruah ...

, Konkani,

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

, Nepali,

Odia Odia, also spelled Oriya or Odiya, may refer to: * Odia people in Odisha, India * Odia language, an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family * Odia alphabet, a writing system used for the Odia languag ...

, Punjabi,

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

and

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Banknotes of India Rupee Fifty-base-unit banknotes