Commemorative coins are a way of celebrating a special event or person.
There are special edition coins minted to mark an event, birthday and so on.
For example during the recent Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi the Rs. 2 coins and Rs. 5 were minted with the theme XIX Commonwealth Games, 2010-Delhi. These featured the symbols relate to the games. Similarly, special coins were brought out to mark the bicentenary celebration of Louis Braille.
And special coins of various denominations were minted to commemorate the Platinum Jubilee of the Reserve Bank of India.
Themes
The commemorative series are mainly based on Indian Independence Struggle, war, peace, wildlife, vegetation, great personalities, various events and organisations.
The main theme is people this year. Images seen on the coins in circulation this year range from C. Subramaniam, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Rabindranath Tagore, Saint Alphonsa, Mother Teresa and 1000 years of Brihadeeshwara Temple and many more.
Kevin Hookens, a student of Bhavans, has been an avid collector of Indian commemorative coins.
He says, “The most special coin of my collection is a half rupee British India coin. Minted in 1946 it features the image of King George VI -King Emperor, the last British Emperor in India”.
Keywords: special edition coins, Reserve Bank of India Platinum Jubilee, commemorative coins, coin collection
