Easter marks the day of resurrection. A day of rebirth. We have heard of Easter eggs, Easter bunnies but Easter coins? Coins shaped like eggs and encrusted with semi-precious stones? Well.
“The tiny country of Niue issued these egg-shaped coins. I acquired the coins when I travelled to Singapore in 2018,” says M. Damodhar Rao, a coin collector. “I have a collection of 25,000 coins. When I am fed with some of the coins I auction them off,” says Mr. Rao who has a hoard that ranges from Chalukya period to Akbar’s reign to a coin issued during the reign of Mohammed Quli Qutb Shah of Golconda.
The egg-shaped coins embossed with ‘Imperial Faberge Eggs’ and the design of the jewelled creations by Peter Carl Faberge have enamel paint as well as encrusted stones. Eggs have a symbolic connection to regeneration among many civilisations and it became a symbol for rebirth in Christianity.
“The egg-shaped Easter coins are a prized possession among coin collectors, very little is known about the coins of Niue which is a coral island in the Pacific Ocean. These coins are rare. I am auctioning them valuing them according to the semi-precious stone encrusted in them,” says Mr. Rao.
