New Delhi, Aug 25 (Deccan Chronicle): For the first time RBI on Friday will issue Rs 200 currency notes for “ease of transactions for the common man and combating counterfeiting.”

The new currency has bright yellow as the base colour with portrait of Mahatma Gandhi at the centre, on the front side.

It bears the signature of RBI governor Urjit Patel. The new denomination has Motif of Sanchi Stupa on the reverse, depicting the country’s cultural heritage.

On the back side it has Swachh Bharat logo with slogan. As far security features are concerned on the front side it has windowed security thread with inscriptions Bharat in Hindi and RBI with colour shift. Colour of the thread changes from green to blue when the note is tilted.

For the visually impaired, the note in the front will have an intaglio or raised printing of Mahatma Gandhi portrait, Ashoka Pillar emblem, raised identification mark ‘H’ with micro-text `200, four angular bleed lines with two circles in between the lines both on the right and left sides.

“Introduction of a new currency denomination and design is done keeping in consideration various factors like ease of transactions for the common man, replacement of soiled banknotes, inflation and the need for combating counterfeiting,” said RBI. It said `200 note will provide the missing link among various currency denominations.

RBI said that the optimal system of denominations of currency is one that would minimise the number of denominations and concurrently increase the probability of proffering exact change.