For six year old Ruchika Hegde, a first standard student of the MRPL School, nothing was more attractive than a big stamp with the picture of a butterfly, on Saturday, at the Head Post Office, Pandeshwara – the venue of a philatelic and numismatic exhibition. It was one of the two stamps she wanted her father to buy for her after scanning a heap of stamps a dealer had collected. She was apparently being initiated into philately by her father. One of the oldest philatelists among the visitors was Nasir Misbah, a poet, who spent a couple of hours selecting stamps to boost his collection. He purchased a few Indian, Australian and Great Britain stamps worth about Rs. 400. He said he did not buy unusual ones as they were costly. The collections of philatelist M.K. Krishnayya on Cynofeliodaes (wild dogs and cats) and his son K. Vishwesh’s collection on marine mammals — which have bagged prizes at the First National One-frame Philatelic Exhibition in December — were also on display.
Mr. Krishnayya’s collections include a Sourashtra State’s postcard with the stamp of a lion and a series of stamps on tigers. Mr. Vishwesh’s collection of a Humpback whale included stamps from Vanatu, Pitcairn Island and Australia, among others. He has explained that the particular whales are blue-black in colour on the top and paler white elsewhere, and are blessed with the largest flippers and are found in the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf. He has a set of stamps on Toothed whales as well.
The coins appeared to be attracting more people, who could freely them up from a couple of bags and scan them for purchase if they so desired. A fairly big coin with the face value of dollar one, issued by the Government of Malaysia, was among them. A series of Yemen coins, Kashmir Dadda Rani coins (of the 10th century), those from the Satavahana era (167-196 AD), lead coins from the Ishvaku era (3rd Century), the Chola dynasty (10th century) and the Mughal empire were also on display.
The five paise, 10 paise and 20 paise coins, which were in circulation a couple of decades ago, were also up for grabs.
The collectors were told earlier that the Government would soon issue coins with face values of Rs. 5 and Rs. 100 in memory of Homi Jahangir Baba.
Bookings for them are on. Collectors will have to invest about Rs. 1,400 to get the coin with face value of Rs. 100.
