About Delhi exhibition 2012

Though I would post about the Delhi exhibition which I recently visited and share my experience. I always suggest people to visit exhibitions so as to gain more knowledge and experience. In our first 3-4 exhibitions we should just look to gain knowledge, and refrain from buying. We should also try to interact with other collectors there and make contacts.

So this one was effectively my first exhibition since no exhibition was held in Delhi for almost 2 years now. And my experience was no less than perception-altering.

The first thing I got to notice is that people are labeling their poor quality worn out and washed coin as UNC. I was literally half-shocked as I thought all senior collectors/dealers must be having a good understanding of condition. As a matter of fact, until a few months back I considered myself a below par collector since I do not have the money and the rates make it difficult to collect. Where as in the past people could easily get condition and in cheap rates too. So I thought that just about every experienced collector would be having better collection than me. But that was until I met other collectors and saw their collection. Even though it was easy to collect in those times, people never put any sort of effort into their collection so their collection is below par in comparison to mine. Not a few people, but a majority of people do not have an understanding of condition and coin also. For such idiots their worn out coin is UNC and my UNC coin is polished or fake.

I also saw that every second person in the exhibition takes you to be a fool, and I got the impression that maybe I have the looks of a novice on me so they tried to make fool of me. I was offered some coins at high price and also saw some fakes for sale. I see that we have to be very careful while buying in exhibition it is very easy to get carried away by any seller and take some bad deal. Some place you see great condition but high price and some place the price is low but condition is not good.

In any exhibition, buying should never be your sole purpose. If its your first-second exhibition then look to study the market as much as you can and refrain from heavy buying. We should also aim to meet other collectors, share ideas, exchange contacts. That is the main benefit we can draw from an exhibition.

Announcement

Hello friends,
I would like to proudly declare that since I have now got 1955 2 anna and 1979 2 paise, my yearwise collection of republic India is now complete in UNC (3 items missing in mintwise). Thanks to your support all this time for the last 3-4 years. Though this also begets the question: if I can make a great collection with so limited resources, why can't you? I know that I have not been posting about new coins for some time now, one reason is unable to take pictures and other reason is lack of time. I don't buy quantity now but quality items only, so I wont be having too many coins to post about in the times to come as well. But I will post my collection one by one in the next few years. And my postings will be on a whole new level altogether as compared to the coins I have put up so far, although they will be less frequent. Items will be more interesting, varieties unknown to most people, items which any average collector would think cannot probably exist or some which may be beyond reach of most collectors either in terms of cost or availability, especially in the time to come. Like your crop science first issue is already beyond reach as its not available in market at this point. It shows up once in a while as of now and availability is fast going down.

Man jailed for selling counterfeit coins

New Delhi, Dec 28 (PTI) A Delhi court has jailed a man for three years and six months for selling counterfeit silver coins, purportedly of British India era, but actually having no silver content.

The court sent Satish Chander Chaturvedi to jail relying on expert reports, which said the coins recovered from the accused, were neither of British India nor made up of silver and were made up of ordinary metals.

"The convict (Chaturvedi) is engaged in cheating of false British India silver coins having no content of silver in it.
Whereas, the metal composition of genuine British India silver coins is silver 91.6 per cent and base metal 8.4 per cent.

"The act of the convict has shaken general public notion that such type of coins are made of silver as prescribed by the rule then, therefore, such act of cheating is taken a serious note of it," said District Judge I S Mehta, while also imposing a fine of Rs 5,000 on Chaturvedi.

Chaturvedi was arrested by the police on a complaint by Lalit Bhatia who said the accused had met him in December 2000 and told him that he was dealing in silver coins and jewellery and was having 4,000 silver coins of British era which he wanted to sell for Rs 50 each.

Bhatia said he agreed to purchase the coins and gave Rs 5,000 in advance to Chaturvedi who promised him to deliver 4,000 British India silver coins to him the next day in a hotel, Bhatia said.

The complainant said he suspected foul play after he inquired in the market and found that British India silver coins were not available merely for Rs 50 each. .

Is Land vital resource bogus?

For those not keyed in, the above coin(picture taken from the internet) is supposed to be one of the rarest coins of Republic India, with an estimated mintage of 400, with the number of confirmed existing pieces numbering below 50. It was also considered one of the best investments in terms of the return as the rate of this one shot up from 500 to 2 lakh in a period of two decades.

However, in a recent turn of events, an RTI was filed regarding the minting of this one on the part of the government. And the reply was, in a word, a shocker.A recent RTI dated 4.4.2011 filed by a collector from delhi with finance ministry, under Q.no 6&7 asked specifically the denomination, the yearof issue, the name of the mintand the total quantity minted of the commemorative coin- LAND VITAL RESOURCE,and available for sale to general public? THE REPLYTO THIS QUESTION BY UNDER SECRETARY (CY.11) & CPIO Mr SUSHIL KUMAR UNDER FILE No.12/14/2011-COIN IS THAT NO COMMEMORATIVE COIN HAS BEEN ISSUED ON THE ABOVE THEME!!

So, where does this leave those who have bought this one at such exorbitant rates? And where do those go who were planning to buy this one? And most importantly, does this reduce a known collector's item to just a piece of metal?

As far as I am concerned, I was at one point thinking of buying this one but ultimately had to forsake my ambitions because of the sky high rates which would not have burned a hole in my pocket, rather they would have burned a borewell and there would be nothing left of my pocket. I am not concerned in the least about the fate of this one since I am not having it. But since this one was not released for circulation but only in sets to be distributed among some dignitaries, do we have to spend such a high amount on such coins?

Please note it is crime under indian penal code 232 to hold this coin as govt/mint denied this coin is official issue (Whoever counterfeits, or knowingly performs any part of the process of counterfeiting 1[Indian coin], shall be punished with 2[imprisonment for life], or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extent to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.)

Now this takes an interesting turn as the Kolkata mint site shows that it has minted the Land Vital resource 2 rupees: http://www.igmint.org/prod.htm . But this is in contradiction with the reply of the RTI. So what can we conclude from the known data? Did the finance ministry make a mistake? Or is the Kolkata mint giving blatant false information? Whatever the case may be, at least I will stay clear of this coin even if I can afford it. I would rather buy 100-200 good valuable varieties for my collection with the same money for which this coin is selling for.

And now, a degree in Numismatics !

MASTER OF COINS

NUMISMATICS IS AN UPCOMING FIELD FOR RESEARCH IN INDIAN HISTORY AND THERE IS HUGE BURGEONING MARKET IN TRADING OF INDIAN COINS BOTH NATIONALLY AND INTERNATIONALLY


All those who collect coins know it quite well that the hobby is good, but most of the time parenst or friends do not approve as they think its a waste of time and money. Well, now we are having a formal course for numismatics which can help you to study coin history and also can be used as a stepping stone to make a career in numismatics.

The University of Mumbai conducts the MA (Numismatics & Archaeology) programme through the Dinesh Mody Institute of Numismatics & Archaeology (DMINA) with three batches of numismatists out in the field. The two-year program is conducted on the premises of the institute along with the Dinesh Mody Numismatic Museum, which was established by Dinesh Mody, a senior Mumbai based advocate and eminent numismatist with large collections of Indian and world coins.

“Numismatics is an upcoming field for research in Indian history and there is huge burgeoning market in trading of Indian coins both nationally and internationally. Thus, the students can expect to be absorbed by the increasing number of auction houses for coins as resource persons and by the numerous museums both in India and abroad that require expert numismatists to catalogue their collections of Indian coins. Additionally, students can pursue their doctorates in the field to churn out original research content in this yet unexplored system of historiography,” says Mahesh Kalra, Assistant Director and Curator, DMINA.

The syllabus of the course ambitiously covers the entire gamut of Indian coinage right from the ancient Punchmarked coins of the pre-Buddhist era (8th-6th century BC) to coins of various Indian dynasties like Guptas, Kushans, Satavahanas, Cholas, Pandyas, Vijayanagara empire, the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughals and the British till the latest coins minted by the Republic of India covering the history of a period of 2500 years! In addition, the students are encouraged to learn numerous scripts ranging from the oldest Indian scripts, Ashokan Brahmi and Kharosthi to Nagari (the precursor of Devanagari) to Greek, Arabic and Persian as Indian coins are inscribed in these indigenous and foreign scripts. Lastly, the students are instructed about the basics of Archaeology, its methodology and various findings to give them an idea of how the various coin hoards are discovered during archaeological excavations conducted throughout the country.

The in-house museum and the institute, spread over a sprawling 15,000 sq. ft. area, are located at the Saroj Sadan in the heart of the Kalina campus of University of Mumbai.

The course also opens avenues for a host of foreign scholarships at foreign institutions with collections of Indian coins such as the British Museum, Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge University), Ashmolean Museum (Oxford University), among others.

I would say that the world is slowly but surely waking up to the juggernaut of numismatics. Anyone can close their eyes and say that only you can be stupid enough to buy 2 rs in 2000rs, but the potential of collection, investment or research in this field is enormous, and nobody can manage to stay in the dark if the sun is shining brightly.

25 paise coins to become history

The following is an article from The Times of India dated 25 May, 2011:

NAGPUR: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued a public notice stating that 25 paise coins would cease to be legal tender from June 30, 2011. Arrangements have been made for exchange of these coins for their face value at all offices of RBI and branches of forty-five banks maintaining small coin depots and notified by RBI.

RBI has made it clear that coins of 25 paise denomination and below will not be exchanged from June 30. The minimum legal tender from July 1 will be 50 paise.

The 25 paise coin was introduced in 1957 when RBI switched over to the decimal system from the Anna system. In 1988, stainless steel coins of 25 paise denomination were issued for the first time. Due to increase in prices of all commodities 25 paise has become irrelevant. A few years ago 10 paise coins were discontinued.

The decision of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to do away with coins of 25 paise and less with effect from June 30 left many people dealing regularly in these denominations at a loss across the country.

Shop owners and street vendors in Patna expressed surprise on learning about the move on Thursday. "We need coins of small denominations because most medicines are not priced in round figures," said Ravi Sahu, a chemist on S P Verma Road. Street vendors, especially those dealing in items like betel, gutkha and beedis, also said they would be hit. "Many a time rickshaw-pullers come with Rs 1.25 and ask for five beedis. They want to utilize every paisa of their income. The decision will render their 25-paise worthless," said Munnilal Sharma, a betel shop owner near Gandhi Maidan.

The RBI has asked the public to exchange these coins at the branches of banks maintaining small coin depots or at its own offices at face value.



In the face of the current inflation, the 25paise and 50 paise coins have more melt value than the face value of these coins and about 6 years back there was an incident in which a person was caught by the police with 25 and 50 paise coins having a total face value of about 60,000 rupees. He had taken the coins from a bank in Mangalore and confessed that he was taking the coins to his contact who would melt the coins into the constituent nickel and sell it as scrap. As such, this move by the RBI should not surprise anyone. From the numismatic point of view, the rarity of these fractional currencies is going to spike in all the categories. The availability of 25 paise coins would decrease to some extent, and this move would be probably replicated a few years down the line in the case of 50 paise coins. Thus the 25 paisa is now no longer legal tender, rather it is now something more valuable: a collector's item.

25 paise varieties

cops chase 500Km for 1rs bundle

1 rupee note 1964

The following is a part of a report in the Times of India. Read on:

NEW DELHI: It's not often that a cop would travel over 500 km to chase a bundle of one-rupee notes. If you thought Re 1 is a pittance, you are mistaken. This bundle is actually worth a bounty - Rs 32 lakh for all the 100 notes. What makes it priceless is its antique value. These rare notes bear the signature of former finance secretary S Bhootalingam and is a collector's dream. Each note can fetch a mindboggling Rs 25,500 in the antique market. And this precious booty was stolen from Delhi and smuggled to Rajasthan. And this sent alarm bells ringing. A team of Lajpat Nagar police raided three places in Rajasthan - Jodhpur, Bikaner and Jaipur - to retrieve the cash.

Rajkumar Gupta, a resident of Rajouri Garden, thought he had hit a jackpot when he stumbled upon 100 notes of rupee one signed by former finance secretary Bhootalingam. He found that he could sell these notes between Rs 28 lakh and 32 lakh. While enquiring on the procedure, he found two buyers - Ankit and Mahesh - who asked him to come to Lajpat Nagar market on March 26. And it was then that he was left duped.

Additional CP (southeast) Ajay Chaudhry said, "While the deal was being hammered out, the two men tricked him and quietly stole the cash. Later, a case was lodged with the Lajpat Nagar police station. We began investigations and found that the accused had moved to Rajasthan. We found that the mobile phones used by the thieves were procured through fake IDs."

The trail took the cops to Bikaner where they tracked down an accomplice, Manoj, who had received the consignment. He was about to deliver it to one Mahender Kumar at Jaipur. "We also got a tip-off that the gang was planning to sell the notes through a local auction and the base price had been set at Rs 26 lakh," said an investigating officer.



The last one rupee note was issued in 1994 and the 1995 1rs note as some of us may have heard about, is a fake. Since the 1 rupee notes are no longer in circulation, that makes them a collector's item. Though I have to admit that I do not know much about notes, but as far as I know most 1 rupee notes have value like 20-40 in UNC condition, and in poor condition we cannot expect appreciation. The 1964 one rupee note signed by Bhootlingam is specifically rare and a single note is valued at 25000+ in good condition.

1000 rupee coin to be released

Yes, yes. I know. The denomination face is nowhere to be seen so how do we know if its a 1000 rupee coin or 100 rupee coin. I was facing the same doubt myself having seen this same picture on a number of sites. But last Sunday I went to this exhibition in Pragati Maidan in New Delhi. It was a stamp exhibition but there was also a stall by the Mumbai mint. This one was on display there along with a few others. I saw it with my own eyes and so I believe what so far I believed was only a rumour.

Brihadeeswar temple 1000 rupee coin

Now I do know that a 1000 rupee coin will come out, and in what design it will come out. But I am still not sure what will be the booking price. The mint representative said that it will be having 90% silver content, as opposed to 50% silver in 100 rupee coins. So i assume that its booking price would be at least 8-10k for proof set and about 10-20% less of that for the UNC set. But here comes the dampener: As per some speculations, the cost of proof set could be higher than 20,000 rupees. And if that is the case and you are looking to have this one for your collection, then I would suggest you not to buy any coins for 1-2 months so that you can have enough liquidity for buying this one. Forewarned is forearmed.

Bookings are expected to begin in March.

Racket of coin con men caught in Kolkata

The Indian coin market is in the growth stage, and along with a boom in the investors, there is also a surge in the number of related forgeries and con men. We need to be on our guard against such people and proper knowledge can save us from being conned. The number of cases of fraud is on the rise and now even the police has started to come into the picture and we may see some high profile cases in the time to come. The following is an article from the Times Of India, Kolkata dated 17th September, 2010. Read on:

KOLKATA: It was an audacious con job, and it almost worked.

On Wednesday, luck ran out for a group of con artists who had chalked out an elaborate plan to dupe an unsuspecting victim of crores. The players involved are from various parts of the country, and though their Kolkata connection is not yet clear, the sequence of events that led to their arrest was played out in the city.

It all started when fruit exporter Danajia Prabhu of Andhra Pradesh wanted to act as a middleman in a deal involving "rarest of the rare antique coins" supposedly worth crores. Preliminary investigation revealed that he came in touch with a 27-year-old man called Atik Ahmed alias Samir of Bangalore, who claimed to have access to four "ujala blue coins" that could turn blue water colourless. Samir also claimed that the coins could fetch up to Rs 2,000 crore in the international market.

Samir asked Prabhu to look for a client while we would get in touch with the person who had the coins. It was agreed that Prabhu would get 15% of the sale price. Samir also suggested that Prabhu look for the client on the internet using the key words "ujala blue coin".

Prabhu found an "interested" person on a website. Berlin-based "Mr Muller of Elloco Cone Foxy Metal" was reportedly willing to pay any price to get the coins. Prabhu immediately shot off a mail to Muller, and got a reply saying he should contact the latter's India "representatives", Ugrasen Sahu and Gaurav Prasad. Accordingly, Prabhu contacted the duo and they decided that a demonstration of the coins to prove their authenticity would be held at a star hotel in Kolkata on August 11. At the same time, Samir informed him that he had established contact with the person Vikas Singh of Jamshedpur who had the coins.

Prabhu and his brother Dayanidhi Damodaran then decided to meet Samir and Vikas. However, just before the trial, Ugrasen and Gaurav called up Prabhu and told him that they were stuck in Delhi due to some urgent work. They advised him that he must not lose the opportunity and should "book" the coins after checking their authenticity. To ensure that there was no foul play involved, they asked Prabhu to take his own water and blue dye for the trial.

Samir, meanwhile, told Prabhu that he had got another client for the coins. So, even if Prabhu was not interested, he would not have any problems selling the " magic coins".

The trial, though, was held as planned but with only one coin. It was found that the coin could indeed turn blue water colourless. Prabhu told Ugrasen and Gaurav that the test was successful and the coins were genuine. He also told them that Samir had got another client and was ready to sell the coins for Rs 6 crore. Ugrasen and Gaurav then asked Prabhu to arrange for Rs 2 crore to "book" the coin and would come to Kolkata soon with Rs 6 crore.

Prabhu was given the bait that whatever he invested as booking amount would be his share and multiply when the final deal would be struck with Muller. Prabhu arranged for Rs 1.1 crore that night and gave it to Samir and Vikas. The coin was kept in a vault. One of the keys was with Samir while the other was given to Prabhu. It was agreed that all four coins would be handed over to Ugrasen and Gaurav through Prabhu only after the final payment. August 28 was fixed as the date for the final deal. It was also decided that all four coins would be brought that day.

The venue of the deal was another star hotel in Kolkata. Samir then received a mysterious call, after which he told the others that Vikas who was bringing the coins had met with an accident near Krishnagar and the coins could not be found. He, though, assured Prabhu that the coins could be "located" through a puja that would cost Rs 5,00,501. Prabhu paid up this amount as well. The puja was conducted and Prabhu was made to believe that some villagers in Krishnagar had the coins.

It was decided that the villagers would be asked to come to the city to hand over the coins on Wednesday. Accordingly, three villagers Baidyanath Sahu, Sashidhar Kumbhakar and Chaitanya Kumbhakar came to the hotel. Vikas, Ugrasen, Samir and Gaurav were also present.

The villagers asked for Rs 6 crore as payment for the coins. Immediately, Ugrasen and Gaurav took out Rs 4 crore and asked Prabhu to pay the remaining Rs 2 crore. It was then that Prabhu suspected foul play.

On the pretext of arranging the money, Prabhu headed for Alipore police station and lodged a complaint there. Immediately, officers of the detective department were alerted. They swung into action and found that all seven persons Samir, Vikas, the three villagers, Ugrasen and Gaurav were involved in the same racket. Police said the three villagers were actually residents of Mayurbhanj in Orissa. Also, in all probability, the website was created by this gang.

While arresting the accused after barging in as plainclothesmen, police found bundles of fake Indian currency on them. A chemical, which was used to turn blue water colourless, was also seized. Police are now trying to find out if the German buyer actually exists. The gang's city links are also under the scanner.

The seven accused were remanded in police custody till September 28, said DC DD (special) Vishal Garg.




It is my request to everyone: collector or otherwise, that please analyze every aspect carefully before making an investment or spending a huge amount on coins. DO NOT buy any expensive coin unless you have the knowledge and are absolutely sure that the coin is having a huge value as per the price asked, and buy only from some trustworthy person and not from some unknown person. These may seem like very basic things but people do get cheated of their hard earned money (which is quite sad) as the con men and fakers have a big network like the one on the above case, and the unsuspecting person gets caught in their web. It is always advisable to consult some knowledgeable collector before buying.

Please remember that lakhs or crores of rupees cannot be earned overnight. Yes, it is possible to earn lots of money through coins but firstly you need to have an interest and study the market for at least one year with interest so as to gain the knowledge. If you invest without knowledge or with half knowledge, then it is not a chance that you will be in loss; it is a GUARANTEE that you will be in loss.

10 rupee coin to roll out around this diwali

Firstly, I would like to clarify that this is not the first time that a 10 rupee coin has been minted by the government of India. The coins issued were mostly intended as a collector's item, and sometimes were also circulated(limited edition). The first 10 rupee coin minted by the government of India had Mahatma Gandhi on its back, and was minted in 1969-70. Even after that, a number of 10 rupee coins have been coming out on a regular basis, and I am the proud owner of a 10 rupee coin minted in 1973, commemorating the silver jubilee of the Indian independence.

But what is different this time is that we are a 10 rupee coin is now permanently coming into circulation by November 2009. To be more precise, three different 10 rupee coins are coming into circulation. Republic India has seen the mintage of 1 paisa, 2paisa, 3 paisa, 5 paisa, 10 paisa, 20 paisa, 25 paisa, 50 paisa, 1 rupee, 2 rupee, and 5 rupee into circulation for the general public after the anna series was made obsolete. The coins in denominations of less than 1 rupee are not minted now since their value is too low to buy anything. Even the 1,2 & 5 rupee are facing the brunt of depreciation and inflation as these coins are now minted at low quality. Now, 52 rupees make one dollar. As a result of the increasing inflation, the government has decided to mint 10 rupee coins now (coins up to denomination of rupees 1000 can be minted as per the coinage act of 1906). The coinage act of 1906 is unlikely to be amended by the end of this century, though it just might happen , and is eventually bound to happen.

The three designs decided for the ten rupee coins are: 'unity in diversity', 'mudras from Bharatnatyam', and 'connectivity and information technology'. The new themes will be printed on the reverse side of the coins. The obverse side will carry the Lion capital as well as the denomination in prominent roman numerals. The move is aimed at reducing the intrinsic value of the coins from their face value and taking care of security features against counterfeiting, apart from enabling easier identification.

An official release said notes of Rs. 10 denomination would continue to be printed and circulated, though in reduced quantity. The 10-rupee coin was being introduced to supplement the demand for the notes.

A new series of coins will also be started for the 1 rupee, 2 rupee and 5 rupee coins already in circulation.

Silver 10 rupee coins

Bimetallic 10 rupee coins