If you have Indian currency dating before 2005, you have only 8 days to exchange them at your banks, because they are not worth a dime after that. Even the denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 are to be exchanged in the next 8 days.
RBI recently decided to withdraw the pre-2005 currency notes from circulation, and as a part of the strategy, RBI requested the support of public and asked them to deposit their ancient currency (i.e before 2005) in their bank accounts or at least get the notes exchanged at nearest available branch. The deadline for the exchange is June 30th.
The earlier deadline was January 1, but later the Reserve Bank extended it till the end of this month. All pre-2005 notes continue to remain a legal tender. These notes can be exchanged for their full value at the bank branches.
It is easy to identify pre-2005 notes as they do not have the year of printing mentioned on their reverse side. In notes issued post 2005, the year of printing is visible at the bottom.
Inorder to improve the security for the currency, RBI wants to remove these notes from the market because they have fewer security features compared to bank notes printed after 2005.
