About me

                    Born  in Nov.1955 at village Bawal (once a District under Nabha State) Distt. Rewari (Haryana) , completed my schooling from my village. Shifted to Mahender garh in 1971 and completed my Bachelor of Science degree from Government College Mahender garh . In 1974 joined Textile engineering course at The Technological Institute of Textiles ,Bhiwani . After completion of education in 1978 initially served for about 5 years  in the private mill sector  with J.C.Mills Gwalior (Synthetic Division) and then with Mahavir Spinning Mills Hoshiarpur (Sewing Thread Division) . In 1982 I was selected through  U.P.S.C. as Assistant Director .Due to the lot of the labour unrest and disturbances going on in the mill sector throughout India (Dutta Samant labour union strikes and unrest period), I joined the Government of India ‘s office as Assistant Director at Weaver’s Service Centre at Guwahati . During my Government service of 33 years I faced 13 transfers and as a result had a chance to serve at Varanasi, Meerut, Panipat, Jaipur, Chamoli, Ahmedabad , Chennai . Finally I retired  as Director (North Zone) with Govt. of India at Delhi .Coin collection has been my hobby and passion. I have been collecting coins since 1971 when I was still studying in a school. Now in these last 51 years of collecting coins I have collected more then 11200 coins. I have coins from almost throughout the world. Indian coins start from Ancient punch mark ,Medieval period of Guptas, Satvahanas, Sultanates, Mughals, Princely States, British India, and Republic India. I am a life member of Numismatics Society of India , Varanasi, Delhi, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad.

About My Coin Collection :-

 

I have more then 11200 well deciphered , scanned and duly catalogued coins. I have almost all varieties of the Proof and UNC sets of Republic India after 1967.Coins of  441 Countries (U.N.O. member countries, non UNO member and the countries which are not in existence by that name at present ) and 2450 Currency notes  of  264 countries. 9000 + Stamps of  more than 400 countries and Postal/Court Fee/Revenue stamps of 280  Indian princely States too. There are all the different coins of India representing from North to South and West to East in my collection.

 

About my journey of coin collection :-

           In 1971 , I  joined B.Sc. course at Govt. College Mahender Garh . In those days a  new concept of quiz contests competitions  based on general knowledge questions was started and I also started participating in these. While studying for the preparations for the contest I came to know about various hobbies. I started collecting postal tickets as a hobby. Suddenly while cleaning of the house during DEEPAWALI festival I found some 20-30 copper coins in a bag . The surprising coins for me were Gwalior state paisas . On enquiry my father told me these were the coins of the Marathas because they also had ruled over that area for some time. With the permission of my father I kept those coins with me and start collecting Coins and later on with the time it became my passion. But the problem was that there  was nobody to guide about this field and there was no money also.

                First time I purchased some Sri lankan coins from Marina beach of Chennai during our study tour in 1977 . While working in my office , I found lot of foreign visitors used to visit. After completion of their visit I was asking about the coins of  their country but generally the results were nil because nobody carried the coins with them . But still slowly I could collect coins of about 30 countries by the year 2000. I tried to learn Urdu to read the coins . During my posting at Varanasi I contacted some Alims/ Hafizs to help me to read the urdu coins but they were of no help . In 2000 I was transferred to Meerut. After my joining I had to purchase a personal computer with internet connection for my elder son which was necessary to carry out his studies. Access to internet opened a new gate for me to understand and deciphering of the coins I was already having. 

                  During a visit to Lucknow I was  searching some coins in the Aminabad market ,I met Sh. Kishore Jadia a renowned and one amongst the earliest coin dealers of india . He took me to his house and guided me to become a member of Numismatic society of  India , Varanasi and also told me that how to start collecting coins systematically. In those days  I also visited the house of  Sh. Anil Kanodia at Kanpur and procured some coins .On a visit to Varanasi I met M/s  Savita Sharma in Bharat Kala Bhawan , B.H.U. Varanasi and became the life member of the Bhartiya Mudra Parishad , B.H.U. Varanasi. Savita Ji guided me to contact Sh. A.V.Liddle at Meerut. Immediately after reaching back to Meerut I   telephoned Sh. Liddle and shown my curiosity in collecting coins. All the coin lovers know about him as he is a renowned personality in this field of Numismatics.

        He is  a retired IPS officer (Retired from D.G. Police Manipur State) and has written books on Akbar,Jehangir and Shahjahan .See the enthusiasm of the coin collectors, on hearing that I was a coin collector  Sh.Liddle along with Sh S.K. Jain renowned businessman of Meerut came to my  house the next day . It was a pleasant surprise for me and he is the real  man who has guided me in this field. Both invited me to their houses and shown their collection . He then  introduced me to  local coin dealers at Meerut (Sh. Amit Garg,Sh. Kishan Garg and Sh. Aanand Vijay) and at Delhi (Sh.Goga Jain one of the most renowned coin  dealer of India, Sh. Raju Bhatt and Smt. Sheetal Bhatt famous coin    scholars cum dealer).I had an opportunity to work with Liddle Sir  on computer to scan and  make slides for his book Akbar on which he was working on .

                              After  my posting at  Chamoli I came in contact with Sh. Anuj Saxena of Dehradun (during Chandigarh exhibition) and subsequently purchased lot of coins and  Commemorative sets and British India Notes. During my tour to Hyderabad I met  Md. Safiullah Khan a renowned personality and purchased my Bahmani Sultnate collection from him and some other foreign coins from Sh. Kanti bhai   Sevak .In 2008 , I  joined office at Ahmedabad and met Sh. Strughan Jain/Sarawagi, Sh.Manish Jain , Harish bhai Shah , Mr. John lobo and other dealers and improved my collection further and became life member of the local coin society.

                   From time to time I had been going to Jind (my wife’s native ) and purchased a lot of coins at very reasonable rates from Sh. Gulshan Bhardwaj , who happened to be the schoolmate of my brother-in –law. In 2009 I joined my office at Jaipur my present native and hometown and met Sh. Prakash Kothari a well known collector cum businessman and became a life member of the Jaipur coin society.

        During one of my visit to Bangalore in 2010  I met Sh.Rajender Maru (Marudhar Arts) and purchased some coins . In the last spell of my service I joined at Chennai and met Sh.Sripal Rathore who is really a very reasonable dealer and helped me to complete my Republic India British India and commemorative sets. Also I can not forget Sh. Raman Sankaran from whom I have got a lot of South India coins. Though I have covered throughout the length and breadth of India in search of coins and for official purposes and purchased coins from many other dealers but   the main constrain was always the money but still as I was not having not much  liabilities   on my head I was anyway  going  on adding to my collection . After my second son  got employed in 2010 I was quite liberal in purchase. I am  a registered member of  all the 7-8   

       registered Auction houses of India  and so getting my requirement fulfilled .Also I have procured lot of  coins from more than 200 sellers/dealers through ebay and now through Facebook. Recently  I found a very good dealer Sh. Vaikuntachary .

       I can not  forget the day I did not purchase 1939 Rupee , which was offered by  Goga Ji for Rs 15,000 only in 2002  because I thought to buy many Mughal silver coins in the same amount . Also 1879 ,1980 Half Rupee , 1938 Half Paisa , Two and Half rupee note , Singh nihanta (Lion slayer ,Gold coin Guptas) etc.etc.. are still pending .   All these coins / Notes are still to be added in my collection and I am still following them.

 

   Favorite Coin Series :-

MUGHALS ,SULTANATE and Commemorative Republic India

 

My Favorite Coins from my Collection :-

Mughal Silver of Murad Baksh, Azam Shah,Kam Baksh,Mohd. Ibrahim apart from other more then 900 Silver coins of different Mughals.

My Achievements / Records :-

I have recorded following three achievements with , “INDIA BOOK OF RECORDS ”.   The same has been published in their yearly book 2021.

1.  Maximum stamps collected from different countries by an individual (3250 stamps from 195 listed and 205 non listed countries.

2.  Maximum collection of currency notes from different countries by an individual.(2050 currency notes from 195 listed and 69 non listed countries.

3.  Appreciated for collecting 10700 coins from 195 listed and 246 non listed countries.

I am a life member of the following organizations :-

1.  Textile Association (India) Delhi.

2.  The Numismatic Society of India , B.H.U. Varanasi. (L-695)

3.  Delhi Coin Society , Delhi. (DCSM-325)

4.  Gujrat Coin Society , Ahmedabad. (295)

5.  Karnataka Numismatic Society, Bangalore.

6.  The Numismatic Society of  Hyderabad, Hyderabad.

7.  Jaipur Mudra Parishad, Jaipur. (M-69)

8.  Jaipur Philatelic Society , Jaipur.