Mumbai, Dec 21 (IANS): The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday said 22.6 billion pieces of notes worth Rs 5.92 lakh crore have been issued to the public between November 10 and December 19.

"Over the period from November 10, up to December 19, banks have reported that banknotes worth Rs 5,92,613 crore have been issued to public either over the counter or through ATMs," RBI said in a statement here.

"In this period, the Reserve Bank has issued to the banks and their branches, for distribution to the public, a total of 22.6 billion pieces of notes of various denominations of which 20.4 billion pieces belonged to small denominations of Rs 10, 20, 50 and 100 and 2.2 billion belonged to higher denominations of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500," the statement added.

Consequent to the announcement of withdrawal of legal tender of banknotes of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denominations from the midnight of November 8, the RBI said, it made arrangements for supply of "adequate quantity of banknotes" in various denominations to the public.