Blogs — Numismatics
The Quality Premium: Stocks to Silver
Posted by Amit Bhandari on
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...
- Tags: Coin, Coins, India Coins, Investment, Numismatics, Silver
The Mark of an Artist
Posted by Amit Bhandari on
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,...
- Tags: Antique, Coin, India Coins, Indian Antique Coin, Numismatics
A Tale of Two Princes; Edward VIII & Harry
Posted by Amit Bhandari on
Picture 1: Silver 5 Kori of Kutch in name of Edward VIII The saga of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle has parallels to the story of another British royal from almost a century back – Edward VIII, later Duke of Windsor, one of the shortest reigning British monarchs. Edward VIII ascended the British throne on January 20th, 1936 and abdicated the throne in less than a year – on 11th December of the same year. Because of his short reign, Edward VIII, unlike the other British monarchs, wasn’t featured on too many coins. The Royal Mint produced a small number,...
- Tags: British India, Edward VIII, India Coins, Kori, Kutch, Numismatics, rare
Know Your India: Nawanagar State and its Coins
Posted by Amit Bhandari on
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...
- Tags: Antique, Coin, India Coins, Kori, Numismatics, Princely State, rare, Silver
Know Your Coins: Mint Marks Part 1
Posted by Amit Bhandari on
Mints are responsible for quality of their product – i.e. – coins they produce, and the mint-mark is a way of tracing the product back to the manufacturer. This is similar to how the packaging of most products mentions the details of manufacturing facility. The mint-mark is not the primary feature of a coin’s design, so it is usually much smaller than other design features of the coin. The first mint producing uniform coins in India was set up in Calcutta by the British, followed by Bombay and Madras mints. The Madras mint was shut down in 1869 and Calcutta...
- Tags: British India, Coin, Numismatics, Rupee, Silver