By G Manjusainath, DH News Service, Bangalore:
16-August-2008
How much can a rupee be worth? As it turned out on Friday evening, not a paisa less than two lakh and twenty thousand rupees!
This is no joke. At a dramatic auction arranged by Todywalla Auctions for the Karnataka Numismatic Society here, an anonymous numismatist from the City outbid the competition to take home a Re 1 coin of mintage 1960 for Rs 2.2 lakh.
The coin had a special reason to be valued so high: It never came into circulation, making the coin the rarest of the rare. But how did it fall in the hands of the numismatists and go under the gavel?
Mahesh Jambulingam, the president of the Bangalore Numismatic Society put it this way: “I had heard that this coin with ‘Bombay Mint’ was made in 1960 and was sent to the senior officers for approval, who refused to send it for circulation. Their objection was Sou Naye Paise written in Hindi atop the number ‘1’. This Re 1 coin could be one among the very few samples brought out for approval and an officer might have kept it with him before passing it on to some numismatist.” The cut-off price to bid for the coin was Rs 2 lakh and immediately three bidders were in the race and the highest bid, of course, was for Rs 2.2 lakh.
Another coin in which the numismatists evinced keen interest was a Rs 10 gold coin of the British era with Queen Victoria’s etching. This was sold at Rs 1.6 lakh. The huge price was for the proof restrike, which made it a rare one.
The highest bid of Rs 3 lakh at the auction was made for a set of Ugandan gold and silver coins. It was bought by Shabbir from Bangalore. He said he has been collecting coins for five years now.
A large number of numismatists had turned up at the Shikshakara Sadan for the auctioning that went on from 5:30 pm to 9 pm. Nearly 235 coins and currency notes were put up for auction.
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