The "Collector"

After reaching my home with my 5 rupees collection (the new 5 rupees in gold color), I was ashamed to call me a ‘collector’ when my mother showed me a collection of her old coins. I’m getting more and more surprised when I talk to my mother about old stuffs! Some of my other Tamil readers would have read about my earlier blog about my mother. I’m sure everyone would have such an experience, but my mother is completely innocent and had never visited any other town other than our Tirunelveli (apart from a few vacations that I or my brother took her). When asked about how she got so many varieties of coins, she told me that either my father gave her or her brother, my uncle. Yet, it is so surprising that over these many years, I have never had a chance to take a closer look at her collection! Here’s a list of coins that my mother has in her collection!

Starting with – she has 2 Annas (1917), 1-4^th rupee (1918), 1 paise (1959 & 67), 2 paise (1973), 5 paise (1965), 10 paise (1959, 76, 88), 20 (1988, 1869-1948) and 25 paise (1975). Here are some pictures for the new generation who might not have seen these coins at all.

Most of you guys should have seen the 50 paise, but not this one – 1869–1948 coin with Mahatma Gandhi on the back side. The same goes with the 1 rupee coin – quite common these days, but not this one – yet another 1869–1948 coin with Mahatma Gandhi on the back side and a 1978 coin. A comparison of modern 1 rupee and the old one (1978) image below.

During the old times, there was no 2 rupees coin. So, I’m jumping to the 5 and 10 rupees coins. 5 rupees old and the new (gold one) are quite common, but have you ever seen a bigger 5 rupee coin? Nearly double the size of the recent coin, the one my mother has is from 1917–1984 coin with Indira Gandhi on the back side. A comparison below.

10 rupees coin – some of you might have seen the recently released 10 rupees coin from the Government of India. Have you seen a 1947–1972 10 rupees coin with the 25 years of freedom image on the back side? Let me show you! [My mother keeps telling me that the older 10 rupees is made of silver and I keep refusing that - judging from the color]

That’s it for the Indian coin collection – let’s move abroad. The nearest country to ours – Sri Lanka. My mother has the 25 cents, 50 cents and 1 rupee coins from Sri Lanka. They’re from 1965, 82 and 72 years respectively. Here they are for your eyes.

Other than these, she has 10 France coin (equivalent to paise – I don’t know how they call paise in France), 20 cents from Singapore, 10 & 50 UAE coins, 1 dime – USA and 4 other unknown coins which I could not figure out from which country/value. Here they are!

Here are the unknown coins:

I'm sure the actual coin 'collectors' would have a lot more coins like 1 Anna or something like that. But to me, this is a great collection and worth sharing. Come to Tirunelveli to see any of these coins!