funny money

in delhi i exchanged the last of my american money in the hotel, and was surprised they didnt give me an 'encashment' certificate or write down the serial numbers of all the bills etc...

when i got back to bhopal one of the 500 notes was refused by two different merchants, and i later found out that it was one of the old bills that are no longer honored because they are too easily counterfeited. my indian friend was able to get it changed for me at a bank, maybe because he is such a dear old man and they seem to do things more for old people here...

anyway, the only 500 and 100 rupee notes that are good have to have the vertical silver dotted line on the right side of the a side of the bill...otherwise dont accept it. not sure there was any mention of this on indiamike before...