FROM SOLDIERING TO NUMISMATICS

       

CHAPPIDI ABHIRATH REDDY

C/O COL GKS REDDY

Secunderabad  - 500 015

To keep myself busy, after my retirement from the Army in Mar 2011, I decided to take up NUMISMATICS as my hobby. I started collecting Coins of various countries, which are currently in circulation, from various sources, like friends, my children who are working abroad etc. I also started buying coins from the local dealers in Hyderabad, where I am presently residing. During one such visit to a dealer, I came across some old Indian coins, which I could not make out as to what they were. All that, the dealer could tell me was the Empire / the Dynasty to which the coins belonged. I was quite intrigued and decided to buy the coins

        I brought them home and started searching the internet for images of the coins of concerned Empire / Dynasty, to try and identify the coins and get various details. The search was quite laborious and tiresome, but partially successful. I could Identify almost 50% of the coins over a period of three days. Thus was BORN my extreme interest in collection of Old / Ancient Indian coins. In the past year or so, I have collected more than 400 Old / Ancient Indian coins, ranging from Ancient Dynasties like Kushans, Cholas, Delhi Sultanate, Vijayanagar Empire, Bahmani Sultanate, The Mughals, Deccan Sultanates, The Marathas, British Empire to include Presidencies, East India Company, British Empire Coins from Queen Victoria to King George VI. I have also managed Princely state coins, like Gwalior, Mysore, Hyderabad, Baroda, Pudukkottai,Kutch,Bhopal,Jodhpur,Udaipur,ikaner,Indore,Travancore,Jaipur,Tonk,Junagarh, Nawanagar, Ratlam etc.

        I still have some Un-recognized coins, which I am trying to decipher with help from various sources. I intend to post the details of Old / Ancient Indian coins held by me including un-recognised coins in my next Blogs.