Minting it

An online museum of coins, currency notes and stamps hopes to revive interest in fading hobbies

When Sushilkumar Agrawal wanted to veer the attention of children, typically engrossed in mobile game applications and social networks, towards what he considers more fruitful hobbies such as collecting coins and stamps, he decided to crash their favourite venue: the internet.

Launched a month ago, Mintageworld.com is an online museum that hopes to be a "collectorspedia", or an information resource for young collectors of coins, paper notes, and stamps. Indeed, such artifacts do reveal information about the governments, economic atmosphere and other details of the periods to which they belong. Unlike physical museums, mintageworld.com has no collection of its own but seeks information from collectors. At Ultra Group's office in Lower Parel, a team of 35 has been collating big amounts of research, which it says was hitherto scattered. While experts will still rely on academic literature and libraries, the online museum could help novices, says veteran collector Kishore Jhunjhunwala.

Agrawal says the museum has had 10,000 registrations so far. Its database currently includes 22,000 coins, 1,200 currency notes, and 3,500 stamps. Most of these are from the Indian subcontinent but it will expand to include various geographies later. The coin category is broken down into ancient, medieval, colonial and modern India. Clicking on a particular coin gives you information about its denomination, year of issue, ruling dynasty, and minting technique. The paper money category spans British India, princely states and the Indian republic. The stamps include lists of official and commemorative ones.

A 2nd century gold dinar of Kushan emperor Huvishka. The reverse of this coin represents Skanda Kumar and Vishakha together

While the site's layout is uncluttered, it will need to be more interactive to appeal to children. The museum is yet to debut a set of online games and quizzes. Web museums typically rely on hi-res photography to recreate the experience of actually seeing an artifact. Some work may be needed in this area too, as some images still show as unavailable.

What led Ultra Group, an entertainment company managed by Agrawal, which mainly deals in film merchandise and distribution, to step into this new space? Its founder says this is a pet venture meant as a service. He remembers struggling to find information or specialised accessories like albums or envelopes when he collected stamps and copper coins growing up.

This note was printed in 1918 during World War I. The number 11111 is unique

Besides having historic value, coins and paper notes are known to be a lucrative asset. Over the years, more investors have gravitated to the hobby, says numismatist Jhunjhunwala. Mintageworld.com later plans to tie up with collectors and hold auctions too. Auctions of coins and stamps are a regular affair in cities, and Mumbai has around three coin fairs annually.

Kaizad Todywalla, whose coin auction house has been in business for decades, vouches for the intrinsic value in this hobby. An 8-gram gold mohur minted by Jehangir fetched Rs 1.8 crore recently, he points out. At present, mintageworld.com does not carry information about the values of listed artifacts. Prices tend to change frequently, says Agrawal, but he plans to add a mention of selling prices as quoted in recent auctions.

India’s first postage stamps & Mahatma Gandhi was the first Indian to be depicted on Indian stamp

More activity is happening in the realm of numismatic research, as serious collectors have emerged in the corporate world. The Hinduja Foundation has 35,000 ancient Indian coins from 600 BC to 600 AD, bequeathed by British Army officer Lance Dane. Some of these, it is said, are not available in state or government museums. The Hindujas recently spent Rs 1 crore on cataloguing and researching the coins, and have big plans for the collection, including permanent exhibition, travelling shows and a reference library.