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The Coin Finds a Collector
This statement does look
enigmatic but in many cases it happens and in my case it is entirely true.
I had spent my childhood in a small town where there were no coin dealers
and the hobby was hardly pursued by anybody.
In school days, going to a temple situated a couple of kilometers on dusty
road was part of my daily routine. The last kilometer stretch was passing
thru’ old market place which was in dilapidated state and there was hardly
any commercial activity as all the shops were shut. Many closed shops were
part of the residences. One shop cum residence had fine murals of peacock
in shining bright colours. Though I never had any knowledge about art and
its technique – I liked the paintings and never missed looking at those
paintings and admire them. Perhaps, being an art lover is the first
‘requirement’ for a collector.
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One fine wintry evening I
was proceeding to the temple, I stepped on something which made some
metallic sound. I was wondering what it could be. Intuitively I bent down
to look what was there. There was something like black piece of metal
lying on stony surface. I picked it up and looked at it. I could only see
a bust in the fading light. Looked like money. Mom’s instruction was to
never pick up anything lying on ground. But this looked like old money and
I thought overruling mom’s good advise would be prudent.
I brought it home and showed it to many friends. There were suggestions to
clean that piece by either dipping in sour buttermilk or in tamarind juice
or in lemon water. I tried the last option. I could see a better part of
the bust and on the reverse there were something looked like three hills,
stars and a crescent moon. Delighted! |
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One close friend was
very excited. He took (lured me) me to his home to have a look at his
stamp collections. He showed me some US stamps and persuaded me to
barter a foreign stamp with my coin. I agreed and brought a Videshi
item my home. More Delighted! |
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Somehow, this
deal was revealed to my mother and there was a strict instruction
to bring that metal piece back. There was no option but to
listen to mother. I rushed to the stamp collector friend.
After a heated argument and Dhak-Dhamki could get my metal
piece back. One day my father was talking about Indian history,
about western kshatrapa Rudradaman’s stone inscription in
Junagadh, about usage of Brahmi script in those day etc..
Eager to know more, I visited a library in a nearby town,
lo and behold! I saw an image of a coin resembling mine.
That was the birthday of a one more coin collector! A Coin Found a
Collector!!! -Bimal Videshi Foreign |
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Contributed By: Bimal Trivedi
bimal.trivedi@ambujacement.com I am a numismatist. like to
write on Indian coins - ancient to mughal. more at: http://coinnetwork.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?user
f6e0xk9qnp5 |
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