The Story of Re-Strikes and Re-Mint

In the past decade, there have been quite a few Re-Strikes and Re-Mint. The terminology Re-Strikes is used to indicate a usage of die [and coins struck with it] in a period different from the Original Period. The Re-strike is not a recent phenomenon. In the past there are quite a few examples even in British India where there are re-strikes; every re-strike has its own story. In the recent times even mints in developed country have done re-strikes to fulfill the need to collectors and there by make a good profit.

As to whether this is a good practice or bad, I leave it to the reader. In India the story of re-strikes is as below;

Part 1: Kolkata Mint

Coins Re-struck in Year 2006:

•           1996 Crop Science Circle in UNC box

Differences:

•           The package has “Kolkata” mentioned where as the Original has “Calcutta”. There are other small difference like the ribbons inside the box present in First strike and missing in restrike.
•           The coin itself is supposed to have broken Shirorekha at “Phasal”. However I have seen coins of re-strike that don’t have the broken Shirorekha.

Remarks:

•           There is nothing official about this re-strike. The news is that an collectors / businessman / dealer or whatever you want to call him; from Gujarat got the Mint to strike these coins and purchased at premium.
•           This then entered the market. The prices are still quite high compared to the supply. It’s a classic case of mint / dealer nexus to jack up the prices.

Part 2: Kolkata Mint

After the success of the first issue, the Kolkata mint was quick to capitalize on this. The year 2010 to 2012 were peaks in the Indian Proof Sets market.

Coins Restruck in 2010:

•           2003 150 Glorious Years of Railways
•           2004 150 Years of Indian Post
•           2004 150 Years of Telecommunication
•           2006 200 Years of State Bank of India

Differences:

•           The coin itself has no difference.
•           The package is also identical. The only difference is R-2010 embossed on the outside cover and on the Obverse page.

Remarks:

•           These 4 sets were considered as the mintage was low in the initial bookings and hence the restirkes were issued at price similar to the new issues at the time.
•           Bookings were invited from collectors and coins dispatched.
•           The revised books although attracted some booking, the quantity was not as high as expected by mint, but still good.

Part 3: Mumbai Mint

Taking a queue from Kolkata mint, the Mumbai mint did its own restrikes. Just to be different from Kolkata mint, they called it re-mint instead of re-strikes.

Coins Restruck in 2012:

•           2005 K Kamraj
•           2005 75 Years of Dandi March
•           2007 150 years of war of Independence

Differences:

•           The packages and the coin itself were identical to older strikes
•           At the back of the package normally there is statement “Coins Minted by … “. This statement was changed to “Coins Reminted by … in 2012”.

Remarks:

•           No bookings were invited for these re-strikes.
•           These were available directly from the Mint counters
•           The price for the re-strikes was less than the price of new issues of the coins
•           It looks like Mumbai Mint had done this for the benefit of collectors rather than profit
•           The quantity was so large that it immediately crashed the prices of these sets in the market

Part 4: Kolkata Mint

After the initial success, the Mint went on to re-strike 3 more sets that were quite older. This created a hue and cry with some old time collectors knocking the doors of Court. The prices for these sets where quite high to the extent that every one was unhappy that the mint has taken to extortion to grab money from poor collectors.

Coins Restruck in 2013:

•           Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Birth Centenary
•           Sant Tukaram
•           Lal Bahadur Shastri Birth Centenary

Differences:

•  The packages and the coin itself were identical to older strikes
•  On the UNC set of Syama Prasad and Sant Tukaram, the First Strike has 3 coins [Rs 100, Rs 50 and Rs 10]. i.e. the Rs 2 coin was not part of the UNC set, but only part of Proof Set. However the Re-Strike UNC has all the 4 coins [Rs 100, Rs 50, Rs 10 and Rs 2]. Hence easy to distinguish
• The Proof of First strike of Syama Prasad has "Mint emblem" that was missing in the re-strike. Hence easy to distinguish.
• The other re-struck sets, i.e. Proofs of Sant Tukaram or proof & UNC of Shastri, its not possible to distinguish the first strike with the second.

Remarks:

•  Bookings were invited for these re-strikes.
•  The price was quite high, 2 to 3 times the price of current sets available for bookings. However still quite bit less than the market price of some of these sets.
• Prices have come down to an extent, but not to the extent as seen in the Mumbai re-strikes

With the current state, its not sure which of the coins would be available for re-strike next, what would be the pricing and packaging. For a collector it means to shell out more money.

Part 5: Kolkata Mint

Looks like the Mint did not make enough money on the re-strikes of Mookerjee, Tukaram and Shastri. Hence it invited re-bookings of these re-struck coins at still higher prices.

Coins Restruck in 2013 and re-bookings in 2015:

• Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Birth Centenary
• Sant Tukaram
•  Lal Bahadur Shastri Birth Centenary

Along with rebooking for the below. Its almost 5th time there is re-booking for Tagore sets.

• Rabindranath Tagore
• Mother Teresa
• Vivekananda