The Currency BazaarWhat Indian banknotes are really worth
The everyday denominations, with the honest answer for each: what an ordinary note is worth, and what the genuinely collectable ones actually fetch.
| Note | Ordinary one | Top version, range from completed sales | Which version that is |
|---|---|---|---|
| ₹1 note | ₹1 | ₹197 – ₹556 | One Rupee Note — Ashoka Pillar |
| ₹2 note | ₹2 | — | no version we can quote from completed sales |
| ₹5 note | ₹5 | ₹3,925 – ₹6,750 | Five Rupees Note — King George VI, signature C.D. Deshmukh |
| ₹10 note | ₹10 | — | no version we can quote from completed sales |
| ₹20 note | ₹20 | — | no version we can quote from completed sales |
| ₹100 note | ₹100 | ₹249 – ₹1,149 | Hundred Rupees Note — 786 in the serial |
| ₹500 note | ₹500 | — | no version we can quote from completed sales |
Each premium range is the middle half of completed sales at independent dealers — asking prices are never counted — and a note appears only while enough sales from more than one dealer stand behind it. Old ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes are never given a price here, because the law forbids selling them.
Why old does not mean valuable
Value in paper money comes from how few were printed and how few survived unfolded — not from age. A note from the 1970s that hundreds of millions of people handled is common, however old it looks now.
That is the single fact the "your note is worth lakhs" business depends on you not knowing. Once you know it, every message of that kind reads the same way, and the request for a fee always arrives.
What Indian coins are really worth →
What the signature on a note is actually worth →
What a gaddi of notes actually sells for →
See what actually sold, and for how much
Real listings, the price the buyer paid, and the date.
See sold prices