Rohan has a ₹500 note. He says the note is valuable in itself, because the paper is very special

Why

Rohan can be forgiven for thinking the paper itself matters — the note IS printed on special paper with security threads and watermarks, so it does feel like the material itself must carry the value. But that special printing exists to stop FAKES, not to make the paper valuable — the paper and ink in a ₹500 note, on their own, are worth only a tiny fraction of ₹500. What actually gives the note its value is trust: everyone accepts it because everyone else also accepts it, backed by the government's promise (printed right on the note itself) that it will be honoured as ₹500 everywhere. The moment that trust breaks down — as has genuinely happened in some countries' history — the same paper, still physically identical, becomes nearly worthless overnight, because trust, not the paper, was carrying the value all along. Test: an old, discontinued note from a currency no longer in use is the very same kind of special paper, yet nobody will accept it for a purchase today — its trust, not its paper, is what expired. His sister is right: a note's value comes from shared trust and the government's backing, not from anything special about the paper itself.