If you like to know history and see different varieties of coins and currency notes, the newly opened Numismatic and Notaphily Museum, a part of the Corporation Bank Heritage Museum and Financial Resource Centre, in the heart of Udupi, is the place you should not miss.
This museum touches upon almost all aspects of coins. Once you enter it, you feel as if you have entered the fascinating world of coins. There are 1,360 coins on display at the museum. These coins are kept in 16 exhibit stands.
Two exhibit stands or blocks focus on coins of Ancient India and one on coins of Medieval India. Says the curator of the museum Kumble Radhakrishna: “Human beings were first shown on a coin in India in 2nd Century B.C., which is displayed here”.
Coins belonging to dynasties such as Mauryas, Kushans, Satavahanas, Western Kshatraps, Guptas, and coins issued by Mughal Emperors such as Akbar, Jahangir, Shahjahan and Aurangzeb, Vijaynagara rulers, Maratha Confederacy and East India Company are on display at the museum. Says Mr. Radhakrishna: “Sher Shah Suri was the first ruler to introduce one rupee silver coin in the country.” The coins issued by the East India Company have been divided into Bengal Presidency, Bombay Presidency and Madras Presidency. The other blocks deal with coins from Great Britain and Abbasid Caliphs of Baghdad, Indo-European, Indo-Greek, Indo-Parthian, Indo-Sassanian, Indo-Dutch, Indo-Danish, Indo-French and Rome. There is a block which deals with commemoration coins.
The currency notes issued by the Centre since Independence are on display.
The museum has rare photographs of the visit of Mahatma Gandhi to Udupi on February 25, 1934.
The founder of Corporation Bank Haji Abdullah Saheb had presided over a public meeting addressed by Mahatma Gandhi at Ajjarkad in Udupi on that occasion.
“The Chairman and Managing Director of our bank Ramnath Pradeep is the driving force behind this museum,” Mr. Radhakrishna says.
