evidence: When the shopkeeper lifts the currency note and holds it against light, you know he’s looking for the most easily identifiable feature – the watermark. The white window on a currency note contains a watermark of Mahatma Gandhi, which is a mirror image of the main portrait. The Mahatma Gandhi series of banknotes were only introduced after 1996, while no other public figure was ever featured on a banknote issued in independent India. Interestingly, many people in Australia cannot even recognise the public figures on their currency notes. We’ll let this podcast enlighten you more on this. A security thread runs to the left side of Gandhi’s portrait on the banknote. The inscriptions read ‘Bharat’ (in Hindi) and ‘RBI’ on the thread, which appears to be a continuous line if held against light. A 1000 rupee note also includes the denominational value in the security thread, in addition to ‘Bharat’ (in Hindi) and ‘RBI’. [...] You may have skipped this feature even if you’re keenly following our instructions so far. Hold a banknote horizontally at your eye level and notice the band towards the right of Gandhi’s portrait. It shows the latent image of the respective domination value in numerics, but you may have to observe it a little more closely this time. If you’re holding a Rs. 5 or Rs. 10 note, you’re already doing it wrong as this feature isn’t valid for the said banknotes.