Coins bring back bygone era in city

The quality of the coins, both in term of look and material used sheds light on the rich era that existed under the Mysore rulers.

These century old coins are from the collection of Jayaprakash Rao, an employee of Corporation Bank. Rao possess a rare collection of more than 40,000 coins, which are hundreds of years old. Even though he is specialised in collection of coins issued by Vijayanagara Dynasty, he also has a vast collection of coins of Mysore rulers as well as other small kingdoms in Karnataka.

The coins reveal to the modern society the advanced system of issuing coins that existed hundreds of years ago.

The coins in the collection are made of gold, silver and copper. The gold coins are known as ‘Pagodas’ and the fractions are known as ‘Fanas’. The coins during the period of Hyder Ali were issued from 1761 onwards.

Tipu’s coins, which were issued from 1782 to 1799 were made from 23 mints spread in three southern states, namely Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. “The coins issued by Hyder Ali and Tipu depict elephant and also bears information of the mint from where it was coined. Later when the Wodeyars regained power, they continue that practice, but it was stopped lated,” said numismatist Jayaprakash Rao.

The collection also includes the coins issued by the Alupa kings, who ruled the Coastal Karnataka during the period 1810-1868.

The Alupa coins are depicted with a mythical image of ‘Shardula’ (lion-like animal), embossed with the royal emblem ‘Two fishes under an umbrella’ and also the legend ‘Pandya Dhananjaya’ in Devanagiri script.

Kids’ day exhibition
‘Children’s day’ special stamps and first day covers were displayed by Dr Ratheesh Udupa Kinnigoli during the meet. The stamps, first day covers, miniature sheets and special covers from 1957 till date were displayed in chronological order.

The collection includes the first ever stamp released on Children’s day and the first balloon post cover issued by Postal department in 1963 as a part of Balloon Flight organised in Bangalore on Children’s day.