Collection of currency, including coins, paper currency and souvenirs, has been his hobby for several years. His kitty has several rare coins and they are his proud possession. B. Ravi Shankar Reddy, a numismatist and philatelist of the city, has now added new coins to his collection — commemorative coins of ₹75, ₹350 and ₹550.
Commemorative coins are issued to mark special occasions and give a brief history and significance of the subject, place or event on which they are brought out, apart from details of the composition of the metal or metals, its characteristics and weight, says the avid coin collector and philatelist.
The ₹75 coin was issued to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the First Flag Hoisting Day on December 30, 2018. The coin has themes of the Cellular Jail in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, along with the hoisting of the first Tricolour by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. It epitomises the spirit of the struggle for independence, when Netaji declared the Andaman and Nicobar Islands as the first Indian territory to be freed from the British Raj.
The ₹350 coin was issued to commemorate the 350th Prakash Utsav of Sri Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th Sikh Guru, who was born on December 22, 1666. He had founded the new spiritual order known as ‘Khalsa’ in 1699.
The ₹555 coin was issued to mark the 550th Prakash Purab of Sri Guru Nanak Dev, founder of Sikhism. His 550th birth anniversary was celebrated all over the world on November 12, 2019. Guru Nanak’s hymns were compiled in book form, which was subsequently published as ‘Adi Granth’. He started free community kitchens, through which his followers, irrespective of their caste and religion, were encouraged to eat together.
“I had registered with the Mumbai, Kolkata, and Hyderabad mints. No announcement is made by the mints before issuing the commemorative coins and we have to keep checking online. It takes six months to two years to get the coin after it is released,” says Mr. Reddy.
“I purchased the ₹75 and ₹350 coins for ₹2,844 and ₹2,985 respectively from the Mumbai Mint and ₹550 coin for ₹2600 from the Kolkata Mint,” he adds.
