KARACHI, Dec 8: Children grimaced and cringed before they finally held out hands and accepted in Eidi the torn, roughly patched and grimy notes.

Both on touch and at sight, these ugly currency papers never before looked as convulsive as they did during the last two days of Eid.

Most youngsters believe Eidi means only fresh and crisp notes. They would prefer fewer and crisper as they refuse to take the notes on their printed value. This is particularly true of those aged below eight years.

“Uncle, can’t you give me a little better ones?” asks a six- year-old when offered a few tenners in Eidi. “Actually, these are too delicate and would get torn in my pocket,” he hastens to add as he reads embarrassment writ large on the face of his uncle.

Another child complains to his father that the notes are “bandaged all over” and he needs the ones “with fewer nicks and better dressing”.

People who could not arrange new currency notes on time had to pay the cost of their inability on the Chand Raat.

“Every year my banker landlord supplied me with a few wads,” says Jalal, a resident of Buffer Zone. “This year I was not able, somehow, to get the supply and had to pay as much as Rs80 for each wad of 100 notes.”

Naturally, those dealing in currency notes had a field-day on the eve of Eid. They had set up stalls at Boulton Market, in Saddar and at almost all shopping centres in the city, and at night the notes were selling as one of the most sought-after items.

It was astonishing to see so much currency in the hands of individuals selling the notes in black market. People complained that their friends in the banks were not as generous as they had been before.

For the past several months the notes in circulation have been losing their shape fast. Unless the authorities at the helm in the State Bank take drastic measures, the slide will continue. Small doses of new notes won’t do.

A cashier at a bank branch said on Sunday that the people in the branches were helpless. “We send orders for notes to our head office and helplessly watch bundles of old notes pouring in.”

Banks supplying notes to their clients in bulk also include notes which are not acceptable to their customers. “On average, in a count of every 500 notes we find 200 faulty and return to the bank

branch for replacement,” said Rafiq Tanoli, a salesman in a shoe store at Water Pump. “But from our customers we accept notes if they have their numbers intact.”

Bickering over the acceptance of currency notes is witnessed daily in public transport vehicles and shops. Most of the times it is the customers who reject the bad notes, but in some cases shopkeepers and bus conductors also refuse to accept such notes. A common reply is something like this: “Do you think I have installed a mint at home and am producing these notes? After all, I too have received it from someone.”

In the current inflation, it is gracious of the authorities that they have already replaced the one-rupee and two-rupee notes with coins. There have been reports that the five-rupee note is also being replaced with coin. It is, however, not clear that how many rounds will these rumours have to make before they materialize into reality.