At end-June 2004, some two billion pieces of these notes worth Rs10 billion were in circulation before the SBP discontinued issuing new notes from July 1, 2004. Earlier, from December 27, 2003, Rs5 coins were introduced but they entered the market in a big way only at the start of this year.

Chief spokesman for SBP said that at end-May 2005, four hundred million notes of Rs5 were in circulation. The amount must have fallen further in 20 days of this month as people continue to exchange these notes with coins or notes of higher denomination.