Gujaratis have a way with money, quips Sameer Shah, so here he’s been doing just that in his special way for over 30 years. His preoccupation with money is not a distraction but a diversion
PRAVASISAMWAD.COM
Many are never too sure what they’d like to do with all the money they have — hoard it, spend it, invest in stocks and bonds or go on a splurging spree. But not Sameer Shah. His prime passion is to collect coins and currency from every corner of the world and use these as windows to know about the arts and culture, history, geography, social events and political upheavals in these places; as valuable markers that document the march of civilisation.
As a numismatist, Sameer has a huge collection of coins from around the world, 75 countries to be more precise, besides an array of commemoratives, special issues and defunct currencies. While numismatics is the study or collection of coins, tokens, and related objects, the collection of currency notes is referred to as notaphily.
Since he has a sizeable paper currency collection, both terms would apply in his case.
While numismatists are often characterised as students or collectors of coins, the discipline also includes the broader study of money and other payment media used to resolve debts and exchange goods.
At one time, the Kyrgyz people used horses as the principal currency unit and gave small change in lambskins; other objects that were in use for centuries include cowry shells, precious metals, cocoa beans, and gems.
Sameer says he got into this rewarding pastime and hobby from an early age. “I was 12 years when I started collecting coins, currency notes as well as postage stamps. As time went by, my interest went beyond the novelty and uniqueness of these coins and notes. I began to delve deeper into what these coins and notes had to reveal in terms of history, geography, the arts and culture, heritage, politics and the economy”.
“Needless to say, the knowledge and information you absorb in this way are immeasurable because it is perhaps different from what you learn in the classroom or through conventional education.”
The good thing is that Sameer has been able to sustain his interest at the same level even after nearly 30 years. “In the beginning, of course, my interest remained at a basic level, and my collection grew randomly, depending on what I could get from friends and relatives. But once I started working, I could go about things in a more systematic and concerted way.”
Working for a Japanese multinational for many years and on deputation in Oman for the last many years, Sameer says, “My job gives me the opportunity to travel to countries and places around the world, and this has made it possible to indulge in my passion and give my collection more focus, direction, variety and volume.”
Working for a Japanese multinational since many years and on deputation in Oman for the last many years, Sameer says, “My job allows me to travel to countries and places around the world and this has made it possible to indulge in my passion and give my collection more focus, direction, variety and volume”.
Sameer takes pride in telling you that he has a good collection of coins and notes of Oman portraying different periods of the Blessed Renassaince under Late His Majesty Sultan Qaboos. He shows you a set of currency notes of Oman no longer in circulation and a handful of gleaming 500 baiza coins once in use, known as the ‘Dhofari’.
Referring to currencies of other countries that are not in use anymore, Sameer says he has pre-Euro currencies of several European countries, post-World War I Germany’s currency notes when hyperinflation was rampant, the old currency of Russia when it was the Soviet Union, of Czechoslovakia before it reverted to two countries – Czech Republic and Slovakia, besides unique and rare collection of currency note of Japan, Sri Lanka and Sudan and the plastic money of Transnesia, an almost invisible sliver of a country, sandwiched between Moldovia and Ukraine.
His collection also includes currency sheets, before it is cut into notes.
But travel only fulfils his hunt for international coins and currency partially. ”During my visits abroad, I make it a point to visit the central banks of the respective countries. Happily, the authorities there have always helped me to get what I was looking for. Otherwise also, if you send these people your request by mail, they are most willing to oblige”.
Sameer is currently engaged in preparing a detailed catalogue or listing of his entire collection. “It has been meticulous and painstaking work, with details of coinage and printing together with information about weight, their intrinsic value and exchange value in the case of coins, details of printing and watermarks in the case of notes.
Sameer says clearly, the use of non-metallic substances heralds the next generation of coins. “A most striking example is a coin introduced last year as a collectable with the theme of ‘Planet Earth’ and featured at the World Money Fair in Berlin, last month.
A ring of coloured transparent—and in this case, blue—polymer separates the coin’s outer ring and centre disk, both made of cupro-nickel. The developers behind this concept are celebrating this achievement as the “innovation of an era,”
The transparent blue ring is made of a material that can be worked like metal but is actually plastic. Blue was chosen to symbolize the earth’s atmosphere. The coin’s obverse includes a depiction of the earth surrounded by the blue transparent polymer ring; illustrations of the other eight planets are found along its outer edge. The joint between the polymer plastic and metal is just as strong as between the two different metals in conventional bi-metallic coins, such as the one- and two-euro coins.
Other significant developments Sameer talks of are the Map Commemorative Coins of Australia that were issued last year and the New Zealand commemorative coins set on India’s Freedom Struggle and on Mahatma Gandhi.
Commenting on his preoccupation with his coins and notes collection, Samir quips with the hint of a smile: “Gujaratis have a way with money; so here I am doing it in my special way. He also adds that his preoccupation with money in not a distraction but a diversion. “I still find time to pursue my other interests, which are cooking, photography and classical calligraphy (English).
