Khote Sikke

The year was 1695. Emperor Aurangzeb was still at the peak of his reign when a self-styled ‘Captain’ Avery captured Ganj-i-Siwa’i, the largest of the Mughal ships. The ship was on its way to Surat carrying not just worshippers returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca but five lakh gold and silver coins, which was the revenue from the sale of Indian goods in the Arab world. Avery first sailed with the hijacked ship to Madagascar and then to the West Indies. A couple of days ago, the Economic Times reported that a handful of the pirate bounty was found in a fruit orchard in rural US. The picture of the Emperor and his coins made me dip into my basket of coins and memories of Khote Sikke.

Since Shah Jahan had emptied the coffers with his opulent constructions all over and what remained was plundered by pirates like Avery, this collector was not left with any coin of the Mughal period. So I flipped the pages of history and found that the Marathas were the true successors of the Mughals with a pan-India presence. Till recently, I believed that I had a coin of the Great Marathas that would fetch me a fortune at the Sotheby’s. This coin is small and heavy and for long I could not read the text. One day, I used the old school tracing technique of putting a white paper on top of the coin and with a pencil rubbed the surface…..slowly the inscription became clear…..Shree Mahdavrao Ma Shinde. A coin of the royal family of Scindia’s! The coin has the emblem of the Gwalior royals in the centre with a cobra coiled above a crossed spear and trident within a circle of beads. Wikipedia also told me that Madho Rao Scindia ruled Gwalior from 1886 to 1925 but what intrigued me was the name taken by the royal scion of Scindias….Alija Bahadur, at a time when the Last Mughal had been deported to Rangoon and the British Empire ruled the country. Mr. Google knows everything so I checked the value of my prized possession and was sadly disappointed to know that it was worth no more than $20….Khota Sikka.

My pouch yielded me some more interesting coins and I shall limit myself to a few. The earliest coins of British India are of George V King Emperor of 1912, a quarter anna and 1916 silver one rupee coin and half rupee of 1946. I was overjoyed to find a one rupee coin minted in 1947 of independent India but the reverse side took away all my joy….there was George VI King Emperor who was still ruling. And, surprisingly, I have coins of newly independent state of Pakistan....1948. The one pice (not paise) coin of 1954 with a prancing stallion is the earliest independent Indian coin in my collection.

One Paise over the ages

Talking of independence, can you see the small coin in the picture above? This is a 1970 coin of Pakistan Sarkar written in Bangla. Bangladesh was not yet born and atrocities there drove millions of refugees into India. One such refugee was a young man in his twenties who had walked into India and managed to reach Calcutta. My father had requested another relative of his there to arrange for a train ticket for the person. Baba, Ma and the three of us went to the Old Delhi Station to receive our guest. He was Nepal da, my father’s nephew from Chittagong. He stayed with us for six months at a time marked with black outs and fears of Pakistani planes bombing Delhi. My mother would take Nepal da out to the markets where she would tell the vendors of the hardships my cousin had to face. Nationalism was at its peak and people readily gave discounts to the poor man on all purchases. My mother also went around her office and colony to collect funds for Nepal da, and when Bangladesh was born, he, reluctantly, went back to his homeland with something to start with. I now realize that it is funny how in one paragraph I have written about the whole sub-continent…India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal!

Ek Do Teen..

Continuing with 1971, in a government colony in Moti Bagh, a baraat was on its way to the shamianah erected in a playground nearby. There was an air of festivity all around and a group of young lads found their way into the inner circle of where the Jea Band was playing the evergreen tune of Come September and friends and family of the groom were dancing merrily. Someone in the crowd now started showering coins and the boys were waiting for this very moment. They stooped down to pick up every little coin that fell. This activity was fiercely fought by all who wanted a share of the loot. With some coins tightly clenched in my fist, I went home with an air of pride, having won a battle and expecting a hero’s welcome. Instead, I got a dressing down from my mother who explained that the money thrown was for beggars and not meant for me. She even admonished my father for having decided to send me to a Christian missionary school and wasting good money. Despite all the shouts and insults, I kept the coins tightly clenched in my fist….after all it was my hard earned money. When things settled down at home, I slipped under the bed and laid my loot on the floor….small coins of one paisa, two paise, three paise, five paise and one ten paise coin….that was enough to rent myself a couple of hours of bicycle from a nearby shop , much against the wishes of my father.

Attanni Chavanni

It feels nice to see these little coins which may be useless or khote now but used to be priceless in those days of old. I remember the yummy choley kulchas in school canteen would cost twenty-five paise only. Some of us would, on days when the pocket was empty, go to five friends asking for just ‘paanch paise’ claiming to be short by just that much and finally end up with the tasty treat totally funded by unknowing friends. Cold drinks, till much later, were a luxury and a soda bottle with a marble on top was the usual evening drink after a round of football. The fun of pushing the marble down, the sound of the fizz escaping and the sweet taste of the lemonade costing less than a rupee was simply heavenly. A sixty- five paise movie theatre ticket at Archana Cinema in Greater Kailash to watch Guns of Navarone was the fun of growing up when money wasn’t so expensive!

With the coming of the Euro, the European currencies like French Franc, Spanish Pesetas, German Deutsche Marks and Greek Drachma suddenly became khote sikkey. Just the Queen Elizabeth in the centre continues her reign uninterrupted.….Kal Bhi, Aaj Bhi.

And who can forget the 9 pm call of “Mitroooon” on 8^th Nov 2016…. when we were told that our hard earned money had turned black and khote while those who had the black got theirs converted to white and sacche! This was the Demon called Demonetization.

Twenty Twenty

And finally see the twenty paise coin of 1969 and a twenty rupee coin of 2020 lying side by side? The 1969 coin would have surely bought much more than the twenty rupee of today so I propose to the present government to re-introduce the old coin, not just for the value but for the logo in the centre which surely they will find very apt.

SS