Coining His Passion

Mumbai-based Mohammad Ibrahim,who set up a booth outside the Coinex-Pune exhibition,has travelled across the country to put together a collection of ancient coins and currency notes.

For the last three days,visitors some curious coin enthusiasts,some veteran numismatists made their way to the Sankalp Hall,Navi Peth,for the Coinex-Pune exhibition. Organised by the International Collectors Society of Rare Items,Pune,the exhibition showcased ancient and modern coins. Among the interesting stories floating around,the journey of Mohammad Ibrahim arrested attention. Ibrahim put up his own booth on the footpath outside the exhibition. His story is a 40-year-long one and the characters are coins,medals,stamps and currency notes from various countries.

Ibrahim is from Kharghar,Navi Mumbai. There,he owns an aquarium shop,but his passion lies in his hobby of collecting coins,stamps and notes. Unable to pay the high charges for participating in the exhibition,the 58-year-old set up shop outside to show his treasure-trove. His passion tracing the history of coins has taken him to different parts of the country from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. “I have been travelling around the country and looking for coins that can be a part of my collection. At different places,I would visit silver and copper traders to get coins,medals and even ancient sculptures,” he says.

In his collection,there are silver and gold coins from the time of Shivaji’s reign,copper coins that belonged to the era of Gwalior King Madhavrao Sindhiya,coins from the Mughal and Nizami eras and coins and notes from 1947 to 2011. “I also have a collection of currency notes from various countries like England,Australia,Egypt,Switzerland,Saudi Arabia,Iran,Bhutan,Pakistan and so on. I have also collected stamps from the time of the British rule in India,” he says while displaying his collection with pride. One even notices different Indian stamps from different time periods as well as stamps from foreign countries. Some of the heavyweights in his collection are the ‘Eye Coin’ from Muhammad Bin Tughlaq’s time,a second century copper coin,antique weight measurement items,medals of the Olympic games since its inception,coins depicting Shivaji’s Rule in 1630 AD,gold coins dating back to the time of Emperor Akbar,Aurungzeb and other Mughal kings.

Ibrahim has participated in several exhibitions in the country and has grabbed the attraction of the audience. He has also been certified by various institutes like Chennai Numismatic Society,Philatelic,Numismatic & Heritage Fair Indore and Shiv Sparsh Pratishthan,Thane,for his work.

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Navi Peth