Plastic currency notes to counter counterfeiting
The Reserve Bank of India will soon introduce plastic money. Initially 100 crore pieces of Rs 10 polymer notes will be issued. The reason for the change is that polymer banknotes have a life span of 4 to 5 times the normal currency notes and would be difficult to imitate or fake them. The average life span of paper currency is only about one year.
These polymer notes are cleaner than paper notes and it would be difficult to counterfeit the currency.
The polymer notes were first introduced in Australia to safeguard against counterfeiting of currency. Besides Australia, other countries which have introduced plastic notes include New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Romania, Bermuda, Brunei and Vietnam.