Republic India Coins, Proof Set, Currencies: [DS13] 5 Rupees

This is part of the Definitive post on Rs 5 coins. The First part talked about Cupro Nickel coins. This post talks about other coins.

5 Rupee – Stainless Steel – Unity in Diversity

Amongst the most controversial coins of the times, the Unity in Diversity theme was adopted for the Definitive coins. The Rs 5 was struck with only one date of 2007 from Kolkata mint, the most common denomination in this series is the Rs 2 coin.

This is only design in the republic coinage that has the value written in words in both English; i.e. “Five in English” and “Panch in Hindi” on the Reverse. The only other design where value is spelt out in Hindi are the 1964 designs after dropping of the word “Naya”.

For more details on the design and controversy; Read the article here and here.

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5 Rupee – Stainless Steel – IT & Connectivity

The Design gave way to a new IT & Connectivity design. The metal was still steel, with edges still security edges. There were stories that these coin were used to make blades in neighbouring country and hence the metal quickly gave way to Nickel Brass. The coins were minted from 2007 to 2008.

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5 Rupee – Nickel Brass

Not withstanding the new designs for definitive’s, In 2009 the old Cupro-Nickel design was again adopted. The only change was metal of the Rs 5 coins was was now Nickel Brass. There coins were struck only for 2 years before the design was change and the Rupee symbol adopted. The Usage of 2 Types of Lions from the older Cupro-Nickel continued. The Mumbai Mint used the Thin Lion and the other mints used the Big Lion. A classic case of one step forward and 2 back.

A strange story of the Hyderabad Mint of 2009.

The first strikes looks with a different Reverse. Although the Lion is of Kolkata Mint type, the lettering of “India” is very thick. Not sure if this was as a result of more pressure during hubbing.
It then looks like it got the right pair of dies from Kolkata Mint.
Further it looks the Obverse die used got worn out and Kolkata mint also ran out of stock. Hence Mumbai Mint provided the dies for the remaining strikes.

A new Obverse die was introduced in 2010. Although the key elements of design were same,

The size of the complete design was scaled down by about 2-3 mm.
Smaller and thicker numeral 5.
The Rupaya in Hindi is quite below from the edge.
The font used for Year 2010 is different. Notice the “1”, etc.

As this design was introduced in 2010, from Mumbai mint we have both the Die Varieties for 2010. All other mints use only the new Obverse.

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5 Rupee – New Floral Design

The current design except for adoption of the Rupee symbol, the key design is pretty much the same as the older Cupro-Nickel coins, surprisingly the Mumbai Mint gave up on its small / thin lion and adopted the Lion that were being used by other mints.

As with other coins, we also have plain edges here. So far I have seen a plain edge from Kolkata Mint for the year 2013. However its to early to say, there are bound to be plain edges for other years and mints as well, they are just waiting to be discovered by numismatist.

Plain Edge for New Rupee Symbol

Year	Mint
2013	Kolkata

This post is organized as 2 part post. This post talks about the Cupro-Nickel issues. All other issues are in next post.

The Rs 5 denomination was first introduced as a Circulation commemorative in 1984 on the Death of Indira Gandhi and then later on the Birth Centenary of Jawaharlal Nehru. The coins were bigger in size. A definitive was first introduced in 1992, just a couple of years after the Rs 2 was introduced in 1990.

The size of the definitive was always controversial as it was almost the same size of the 50 paise coin. The difference being the thickness.

The coins gave way to steel briefly before moving to Nickel Brass, the composition of the current coins.

The coins by Mumbai Mint have Die Variety for the year 1998 to 2000 where 2 Lion types have been used. Apart from this there are Edge Verities with Milled edges for quite a few years and Plain edge for lesser number of years.

Note: This was in use by all mints from 1992 to 1997.

In 1998, Mumbai Mint created a new die [see below 154.4] with thin lion. In the years 1998 to 2000, the Mumbai Mint coins are available in both Reverse dies. From 2001 onwards, Mumbai Mint only used the Reverse in 154.4 and discontinued in the 151.1