Many applications dealing with image management need a technique for removing duplicate images or for grouping related (near-duplicate) images in a database. This paper proposes a concentric circle-based image signature which makes it possible to detect near-duplicates rapidly and accurately. An image is partitioned by radius and angle levels from the center of the image. Feature values are calculated using the average or variation between the partitioned sub-regions. The feature values distributed in sequence are formed into an image signature by hash generation. The hashing facilitates storage space reduction and fast matching. The performance was evaluated through discriminability and robustness tests. Using these tests, the particularity among the different images and the invariability among the modified images are verified, respectively. In addition, we also measured the discriminability and robustness by the distribution analysis of the hashed bits. The proposed method is robust to various modifications, as shown by its average detection rate of 98.99%. The experimental results showed that the proposed method is suitable for near-duplicate detection in large databases.