Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
100 Rupees Haj Pilgrim, Reserve Bank of India
| Issuer | Reserve Bank of India |
|---|---|
| Year | 1957-1962 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Rupee (1950-1957) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Printed in red. The central vignette shows two tusker elephants standing within a forest setting, with the Reserve Bank of India seal incorporating a tiger and palm tree motif. The denomination is rendered in multiple Indian scripts arranged around the composition. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Ashoka Pillar watermark |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
India's Haj pilgrim notes occupy a genuinely peculiar corner of monetary history. Issued specifically for Indian Muslims traveling to Mecca for the Haj, they were legal tender in Saudi Arabia but not in India itself — a deliberate mechanism to prevent the notes from being repatriated and used to circumvent India's strict foreign exchange controls under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act. The Reserve Bank issued them through authorized agents, and pilgrims surrendered their ordinary rupees to receive these in exchange.
Saudi Arabia eventually objected to the arrangement, and the series was discontinued in 1978 after sustained diplomatic pressure. Pakistan had operated a nearly identical scheme with its own Haj notes.