Our currency notes

In your book, Our Wondrous World (Chapter 5), the teacher holds up a currency note and asks the class whose picture is on it. Everyone says together, 'Mahatma Gandhi!' Then she tells them there are really TWO pictures of him on each note. When the children hold the note up to the light, they are surprised to find a second, smaller picture of Gandhi ji that they had not seen before.

The note also has a pair of tiny round spectacles. These spectacles are the symbol of a mission for the whole country called the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the Clean India Mission. The symbol is based on Gandhi ji's own spectacles, because he was very particular that everyone should keep their surroundings clean. People who lived in his ashram followed strict rules of cleanliness.

Each note also shows a monument. On the ₹10 note it is the Sun Temple of Konark, in Odisha. And the note has writing in many languages — a clue that people in India speak many languages.

Every country has its own symbol for its money. The dollar has $ and the euro has €. India's currency, the rupee, has its own symbol: ₹.