1969 - Mahatma Gandhi Birth Centenary - Proof Set

This post gives the details of the Proof Set. The Next post gives the details of UNC

The second Occasion for the release of commemorative coins in India was on the Mahatma Gandhi Birth Centenary in the year 1969. For the fist time an Rs 10 coin was issued. The coin was part of the Proof Set as well as released for general circulation. After Independence this is the first time India had a Silver coin in circulation. This was followed by another 2 Rs 10 coins in the next 2 years before being discontinued. The Silver coins from the year 1973 onwards were only available as part of Proof or an UNC Set and not for general circulations. The Mumbai Mint adopted the “B” Mint mark from this issue on Proof Coins.

The details of the coins are as below;

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement. A pioneer of satyagraha, or resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience—a philosophy firmly founded upon ahimsa, or total nonviolence—Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.Gandhi is often referred to as Mahatma an honorific first applied to him by Rabindranath Tagore. In India, he is also called Bapu and officially honoured as the Father of the Nation. His birthday, 2 October, is commemorated in India as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day of Non-Violence.
Gandhi first employed non-violent civil disobedience as an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, in the resident Indian community's struggle for civil rights. After his return to India in 1915, he set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers in protesting excessive land-tax and discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, increasing economic self-reliance, but above all for achieving Swaraj—the independence of India from foreign domination. Gandhi famously led Indians in protesting the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km Dandi Salt March in 1930, and later in calling for the British to Quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned for many years, on many occasions, in both South Africa and India.
Gandhi strove to practice non-violence and truth in all situations, and advocated that others do the same. He lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential community and wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven with yarn he had hand spun on a charkha. He ate simple vegetarian food, and also undertook long fasts as means of both self-purification and social protest.

Proof Set:

Coins of Rs 10, Rs 1, 50 and 20 Paise along with Regular coins of 1,2,3,5,10 paise
Available in Green, Brown and Blue Covers.

Paper Envelope

Brown Cover

Blue Cover

Red Cover

Recently I cam across this package on eBay US, sometimes being mis-sold as VIP. During the early period, there were quite a few Companies/Dealers in US that would place bulk orders with the Mint and get the sets. These sets look similar, where the Proof set was put into an acrylic packaging presumably to protect coins and the Mint's packaging was very poor.

UNC Set: Coins of Rs 10, Rs 1 and 20 and 50 Paise
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