Blogs — Coin

Gold is one of the two ways to preserve wealth across generations, and an asset that holds it value in times of uncertainty and unrest.  Gold prices have crossed yet another high in January 2025, crossing Rs 83,000/10 grams, up nearly 30% over the past year. If not for the 9% cut in customs duty in July 2024, the price would have been past Rs 90,000. Gold has long been favored by Indians to preserve wealth across generations – as per the World Gold Council estimates, Indian households hold an estimated 24,000 tons of gold – at the current market...

Over the past few months, I have noticed an increasing interest in silver (and gold) coins – from collectors, and investors who dabble in collectibles. The reason is obvious – silver price is up by almost 35% over the past year. Moreover, some investor-collectors I know like to park some of their equity market gains in antique-bullion coins. There are some commonalities between the equity market and collectibles – sound research is one of them. For instance, consider three seemingly identical coins in the image above – silver rupees from different years 1938, 1943 and 1944. To a layperson, they...

Figure 1: Silver Rupees showing initials of William Wyon and Venancio Alves Older coins sometimes have tiny letters engraved on them – often quite prominently. A very good example, familiar to Indian collectors, is the 1840 silver rupee of the East India Company, where the letters WW (sometimes WWS) can be seen at the base of Queen Victoria’s neck (See Figure 1). The Indo-Portuguese silver Rupia of 1903-04 (King Carlos) has larger letters V ALVES – clearly visible to the naked eye. A quick test to check wear on such coins is to read these letters – given their small size,...

The 1 Pie Tarazu coin   Figure 1: 1 Pie: Calcutta Presidency The smallest unit of currency in widespread use during the British era was 1/12 anna, which was 1/192 of a rupee. This unit was also called the ‘pie’ and was equal to 1/3 of a paisa – explaining Hindi sayings such as ‘पाई पाई का हिसाब’ (pie pie ka hisaab). Upto 1835, the British minted 1 Pie coins, which after 1835 became 1/12th Anna – which continued to be minted right up to the 1940s. Figure 2: 1 Pie: Bombay Presidency Before the Revolt of 1857, India was governed by...

Nawanagar was a princely state in the Kathiawar region of Gujarat, with the Gulf of Kutch to its north. The ruler was the Jam of Nawanagar – a Jadeja Rajput and from the same clan as the rulers of Kutch. The town of Nawanagar was founded in 1540 by the first Jam Rawal, who was fleeing Kutch. The Jam Rawal in early 20th century was the well known cricketer Ranjitsinhji. The town of Nawanagar is also much better known as Jamnagar – the site of one of the world’s largest petroleum refineries, owned by Reliance Industries. Another well known port...