From a coin playing JFK's speech to those from countries that don't even exist anymore, there was a lot to offer for Numismatics and stamp collection fans
Do you know that a Swiss Franc note has a sketch of Chandigarh city plan on one side or that Ghana is the only country that has printed photos of six of its presidents on a single note or that Myanmar has a denomination 35 note while Surina boasts of a denomination 2.5 note?
All this and much more came to the fore during an exhibition of coins, currency notes and postal stamps from all 193 United Nations (UN) member countries at Jhunjhunwala College in Ghatkopar (W) on Saturday. The exhibition was conceptualised and presented by Sanjay Narayan Joshi, an ex-deputy manager with a nationalised bank, who opted for voluntary retirement in 2012. At present, he is a visiting faculty for the post-graduate course in Numismatics and Archaeology at University of Mumbai and has been collecting coins, stamps and currency notes since 1982.
Joshi displayed a part of his collection on the sidelines of a seminar on import and export. Six catalogues from each of the 193 countries were displayed. He also displayed a collection of coins, currency notes and postal stamps of 30-odd countries that are not UN members, including Scotland, Hongkong and Macau. There were some items from even non-existing countries, such as Danzig, which is is part of Poland now, and Biafara, now a territory of Nigeria.
Joshi proudly showed off the notes of four countries that had words in Tamil language. Then there were the unusual denomination 3 notes from Kazakhstan and Cuba. A tiny coin, almost the size of a bindi, which was used in Sindh province 1,300 years ago, was a prize attraction. A $5 coin of Republic of Liberia had a 30-second speech by John F. Kennedy ingrained into it with the help of an integrated circuit. A small knob on the coin can put the speech on, and it can be re-charged with small batteries.
The stamps of Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar were are much sought-after by college students at the exhibition.
To organise more such exhibitions, Joshi can be contacted on 9821234968.
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