India P-111e 50 Rupees 2018 UNC—Gandhi—Hampi Stone Chariot
India P-111e 50 Rupees 2018 UNC—Gandhi—Hampi Stone Chariot
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One of modern India’s most elegant circulation notes, the 50 Rupees New Mahatma Gandhi Series pairs the nation’s founding father with one of its most breathtaking ancient monuments — the stone chariot of Vitthala Temple at Hampi, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Front
- Colors: teal and cyan multicolor overprint with black engraving
- Portrait of Mahatma Gandhi at center
- Denomination in Hindi (₹५०) and Western numerals (₹50)
- Reserve Bank of India seal to the right of Gandhi’s portrait, near the bottom
- Ashoka Pillar on the right
- Non-metallic windowed security thread inscribed with RBI & भारत (India)
- Signatures: Gov. Urjit Patel — Governor, Reserve Bank of India
Back
- Colors: teal and cyan multicolor overprint with black engraving
- Stone chariot at Vitthala Temple Complex (14th century), Hampi — a UNESCO World Heritage Site
- Gandhi’s glasses below the watermark window
- Denomination inscribed in 15 Indian languages (excluding Hindi and English): Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi (Gurmukhi), Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu
- Swachh Bharat (Clean India) mission logo and slogan: स्वच्छ भारत — एक कदम स्वच्छता की ओर
- Date at upper left; हम्पी / HAMPI inscription
Other Characteristics
- Varieties: P-111a (2017, UP, no plate letter) · P-111b (2017, UP, plate letter L) · P-111c (2017, UP, plate letter R) · P-111d (2018, UP, no plate letter) · P-111e (2018, UP, plate letter L) — this note · P-111f (2018, UP, plate letter R) · P-111 (2019–2025, SD/SM varieties)
- Catalog numbers: P-111e · TBB B300 · Numista N#202325
- Watermark: Mahatma Gandhi portrait and electrotype denomination
- Composition: Paper
- Size: 135 × 66 mm
- Issuing entity: Reserve Bank of India
- Printer: Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India
- Demonetized: No — legal tender
- Signatures: Gov. Urjit Patel — Governor, Reserve Bank of India
- Currency: Indian Rupee (decimalized, 1957–date)
- Official languages: Hindi, English (plus 22 scheduled languages)
About India
- Origin of name: From Indus, derived from the Sanskrit Sindhu — the ancient name of the Indus River; the name passed through Persian and Greek before becoming “India” in English
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Capital: New Delhi (city pop. ~250,000; metro pop. ~33 million)
- Origin of name: “Delhi” likely derives from the Hindi/Prakrit dhilli or from Dhillu, a Tomar ruler; “New” was added when the British built the planned capital adjacent to the old city, inaugurated in 1931
- Population: ~1.44 billion (UN 2024) — more than the US, Brazil, and Indonesia combined
- Area: 3,287,263 km² (1,269,219 mi²) — roughly the size of the US east of the Mississippi, plus Texas
- GDP per capita (PPP): ~$10,100 (IMF 2024)
- Main exports: Refined petroleum, pharmaceuticals, gems & jewelry, machinery, textiles, rice
- Borders: Pakistan (west), China and Nepal (north), Bhutan (northeast), Bangladesh and Myanmar (east); coastlines on the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal
- Official/spoken languages: Hindi and English (official); 22 scheduled languages including Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, and others; hundreds of regional dialects
- Ethnicities: Indo-Aryan (~72%), Dravidian (~25%), Austroasiatic and Tibeto-Burman groups (~3%)
- Memberships: UN (founding member, 1945); Commonwealth of Nations (1947); WTO (1995); G20 (founding member; hosted 2023 summit); BRICS (founding member, 2009); SCO (2017)
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Sovereignty:
- Indus Valley Civilization (c. 3300–1300 BC) — one of the world’s earliest urban cultures
- Vedic period and Mahajanapadas (c. 1500–300 BC)
- Maurya Empire (322–185 BC) — first pan-Indian empire under Chandragupta and Ashoka
- Gupta Empire and regional kingdoms (4th–12th century AD)
- Delhi Sultanate (1206–1526) — Turkic and Afghan Muslim rule over northern India
- Mughal Empire (1526–1857) — peak of Islamic rule; Hampi was sacked by the Deccan Sultanates in 1565
- British East India Company (1757–1858) → British Raj (1858–1947)
- Independence (15 August 1947) — partition into India and Pakistan
- Republic of India (26 January 1950–date) — this note issued during this period
India Unfiltered
- India is the world’s largest democracy by population — over 640 million votes were cast in the 2024 general election alone
- India has the world’s largest film industry by number of films produced annually, with Bollywood, Tollywood, and regional industries combined
- The game of chess was invented in India (as chaturanga) around the 6th century AD
- India is home to 38 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including Hampi — the very site depicted on this note’s reverse
- India launched its Chandrayaan-3 mission in 2023, becoming the first country to land near the Moon’s south pole
- Despite being one of the world’s largest economies, India’s GDP per capita ranks below 130th globally — a stark reminder of the scale of its inequality
- The Kumbh Mela pilgrimage is the largest human gathering on Earth; the 2019 event drew an estimated 200 million people over 49 days
The Father of a Nation on Paper
Mahatma Gandhi has appeared on every Indian rupee banknote since 1996 — a deliberate choice to anchor the currency in the moral authority of the independence movement. The New Mahatma Gandhi Series, introduced from 2016 onward, refreshed the design language with cleaner layouts, new security features, and a rotating cast of India’s most iconic monuments on the reverse. The 50 rupees note drew the short straw in the best possible way: Hampi.
Hampi: A Kingdom Frozen in Stone
The stone chariot at Vitthala Temple is one of the most photographed objects in India — a 16th-century granite sculpture so precise it looks like it could roll. Hampi was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire, which at its peak in the 1500s was one of the wealthiest cities on Earth, rivaling Rome and Beijing. In 1565, a coalition of Deccan Sultanates sacked and burned the city over six months, leaving behind the extraordinary ruins that now draw visitors from around the world. The UNESCO designation came in 1986. The stone chariot survived everything.
The Urjit Patel Era
This 2018 note bears the signature of Gov. Urjit Patel, who served as RBI Governor from September 2016 to December 2018 — one of the most turbulent periods in modern Indian monetary history. Patel oversaw the chaotic aftermath of the 2016 demonetization of ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes, which wiped out 86% of India’s currency in circulation overnight. He resigned in December 2018, citing personal reasons — widely interpreted as a clash with the government over RBI autonomy. Notes signed by Patel carry a quiet historical weight.
Own this note and you hold a piece of India’s monetary and cultural history — Gandhi’s gaze on one side, a 500-year-old stone chariot on the other, and the signature of a central banker who stood at the eye of a monetary storm.
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Banknote Condition Guide (UNC, XF, VF, F etc.)
- UNC (Uncirculated): No folds/creases; full crispness/sheen. May have "half moon" at edge of security thread.
- AU (About Uncirculated): Nearly perfect, with a single light fold or handling mark that doesn't break the paper. Crisp and colorful.
- XF a.k.a. EF (Extremely Fine): Crisp, firm, bright; a few light folds or one firm crease.
- VF Plus: Minor folds/stains; white areas are bright, still not quite Extra Fine.
- VF (Very Fine): Several folds; paper firmer than average; corners lightly worn.
- VF Minus: VF but may show foxing (yellow/brown patches), thinner paper, more folds/wrinkles/small tears (1-3 mm), otherwise intact.
- F (Fine): Well-used, many folds or creases; paper is soft; some soiling and/or pen marks.
- VG (Very Good) / Limp/worn/faded with heavy creasing/edge wear/tears.