₹20 — Twenty Rupees
The artwork
Front: Mahatma Gandhi at right, smiling, in the 1946 portrait that has fronted every Indian note since 1996. The centre carries the bank's name in Hindi and English, the Central Government guarantee, a large ornamental 20 and "बीस रुपये", with the promise to pay in both scripts above the Governor's signature. Left of the watermark window stands the Lion Capital of Ashoka; a small Reserve Bank seal sits lower right, beside a bright vertical 20 panel.
Back: A tropical coastal scene in reds and pale greens: coconut palms crowding the foreground, a shoreline and headland receding into hazy hills — the Mount Harriet view over the sea in the Andaman Islands. The bank's name in Hindi arches over the vignette, TWENTY RUPEES and बीस रुपये run along the foot, and the narrow left-hand panel gives the denomination in fifteen languages.
In circulation
The red-orange ₹20 of the Mahatma Gandhi series entered circulation in 2001 and was printed in large numbers for close to two decades. It was superseded in 2019 by the greenish-yellow Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series ₹20 bearing the Ellora Caves, though notes of this older design remain legal tender.
Details
- IssuerReserve Bank of India — "Guaranteed by the Central Government"
- CurrencyRupee (₹)
- DenominationTwenty Rupees
- Collectedon the India journeys, 1992–2018
- SeriesMahatma Gandhi series ₹20, introduced 2001
- WatermarkMahatma Gandhi portrait with electrotype 20 in the left-hand window
- SecurityEmbedded windowed security thread; denomination in fifteen languages on the reverse panel
- SignatureGovernor, Reserve Bank of India