‘There is music in these postage stamps. They are not just pieces of paper with images on them but contain music that you can listen to,’ says retired Commander Gandikota Sriramarao, as he shows off his collection of gramophone record/CD/DVD stamps from Bhutan and North Korea that can actually be played.
The Visakhapatnam-based philatelist is exhibiting his collection of currency notes, coins and pictorial cancellations related to music at the Tag Listening and Viewing Archives at The Music Academy.
An avid interest in music and singing led Mr. Sriramarao to learn music after he retired from the Indian Navy.
“Collecting stamps, coins and currency have been my passion from childhood. But when I started learning music, I decided to collect things connected to music. I have been doing it for 24 years now and have 250 coins and 93 musical currency notes apart from over 4,000 stamps from around the world,” says the 74-year-old who spends half his pension on this.
A walking encyclopaedia on stamps and currency, he says, “There are 76 musical post offices in 13 countries. They are named after musicians.”
At the exhibition, open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. till Saturday, one can see coins shaped like guitars and those embedded with Swarovski crystals, or even gold and silver.
Mr. Sriramarao’s wife, Ramalakshmi Gandikota, herself a musician, and son Vijai Gandikota too share his passion for stamps and are at hand to explain the significance of the collection to visitors at the exhibition.
