Single Coin Sets – To Buy or Not To Buy

To Buy or Not to Buy, that’s the question.

Of late there are quite a few single coin sets issued by the mint. There are 2 varieties of packaging. One is like a regular Proof / UNC Set in a 3 fold packing [Louise Braille, Gur-Ta-Gaddi from Hyderabad Mint]; the other is like an ATM Card [Gur-Ta-Gaddi from Mumbai Mint and Saint Alphanso].

It definitely makes sense to buy the ATM Card and I am not discussing much on this. I am more concerned on the 3 Fold packing of the coins. It looks simple enough to copy. The cost of manufacturing a duplicate is as easy as taking the image of the original and giving it for screen printing. Typical cost of running a screen print of same quality around Rs 10 to Rs 15. The UNC Coin itself will be at near face value in most of the cases.

Is there a way to distinguish between a duplicate package and an original mint packaging?

Technically it’s possible, based on the paper quality and the image quality. However to a normal collector, it would be extremely difficult and in some cases may also not be possible. The paper and ink used is not of Currency note grade that is difficult to source, but more regular and available to normal printing.

The reason I am more concerned is that there are quite a few Private Single Coin Set in circulation. I myself bought quite a few under the impression that these were from mint. There was no reason to doubt that these were not Mint packs and Private packs. Only when I saw quite a few of them in the market I wondered, and saw the package in more detail. There was no mention that the set are minted by mint as is typical on the sets sold by mint. So clearly the private players did not want trouble by putting the statement “Coins Minted by Mumbai/Kolkata Mint”. It would have been a dead give away that the Mint has not manufactured these designs.

This makes me wonder, it packaging is so easy that what’s to happen on some of the older Mint Sets, most notable I am talking about the following sets of Single Low denomination coin that is also available in circulation;

• 1991 – Rajiv Gandhi [2 Coins of Rs 1]
• 1997 – Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose [2 Coins of Rs 2]
• 1997 – Cellular Jail [2 Coins of Rs 1]
• 1999 – Saint Dnyaneshwar [2 Coins of Rs 1]

Each of these sets is going for more that Rs 5000 to Rs 10000 as of 2011. The packaging of these sets looks extremely simple to copy. The coins themselves are available in plenty in UNC Condition. All these sets by mint had a UNC Coin and not a Proof Coin. If these were Proof Coins Sets by Mint, it would have been easier to identify fake sets as it’s relatively easy to distinguish between a Proof Coin and a UNC Coin. However Coin used in UNC Set and available for general circulation is of same grade. This makes it difficult to identify fake sets. One just has to rely on the packaging. Now the packaging on this itself can show signs of different ink [essentially shades] and paper quality. However even the packaging by mint over a period of year’s shows different fading due to light and other storage conditions. Even the paper can’t be easily distinguished. So anyone with UNC coins and access to a Screen Printer can easily create fake sets. The chances of getting caught are also less as there are no tell tale signs.


Note I am less inclined to debate on the other low denomination coin sets issued by mint, namely the

• 1991 – Tourism Year 
• 1991 – Commonwealth-Parliamentary-Conference
• 1993 – 89th-Parliamentary-Union-Congress 

These set’s had no silver coin, it has coin of Rs 5, Rs 2 and Rs 1 in the Tourism year and coins of Rs 10, Rs 5 and Rs 1 in the other 2. Only the Rs 1 was in general circulation. Here again it may be easier to create the cover, however minting of the coin itself would be a daunting task. There would be very few places that would have the capability of minting the coins. It’s also relatively easier to call out a fake coin as there are tons of parameters that they are evaluated on and there are quite a few experts who can identify a genuine coin from a fake coin.


Hence my question “To Buy or Not to Buy” that’s the question and it still remains.