KARACHI: There was a rush at Karachi banks for the new Pakistan currency notes on Friday [Oct 1] … to the value of Rs 2,00,00,000 from the State Bank of Pakistan. The notes sold in the black market after the banks were closed. The blue five-rupee note was the favourite and fetched 6¼ per cent above its face value to black marketers. The ten-rupee notes fetched only 8 annas more and there were no buyers for the dark green hundred-rupee notes in the black market. A large number of shopkeepers attracted customers by hanging placards and notices in their show windows: “We can give you new currency notes.”

Soon after the debut, every man with a new note was surrounded by eager crowds but the owners would not part with them. It was more of exhibition than circulation that the new notes experienced on their first day. …

Although the new currency notes do not contain the usual watermarks, their geometrical design and the intaglio printing make them [foolproof] against forgery. “To forge the old currency notes was easy. But it is not possible to produce the rough surface of the spherically designed papers,” observed an official of the State Bank.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2023