The other day, I got down from an auto, and the fare was coming something like 26 Rs 50 paise. The driver charged me Rs 27/-. I always carry along an extra Meter Card, knowing the tendency of drivers to usually charge more than the metered amount. As I opened the card with me, the fare written therein said I needed to pay him an amount of 26 Rs and 50 paise. So I candidly asked the driver to charge 26.50. However he remarked as much candidly as I had,” Abhi ye 50 paise kaa kya aap hisaab rakhte ho”…..

The “Fighter” in me wasn’t ready to accept his refusal to charge 26.50. But nonetheless I hopped out of the auto, and walked silently telling myself “Indeed who cares about 50 paise these days?”. The “practical thinker” in me took over and I walked away paying the auto Rs 27.

The rate at which the significance of Coins per se is diminishing, very soon a time will come wherein Numismatists and museums related to Numismatics will perish from our world.

Even the Vegetable seller lady doesn’t value that 25 and 50 paisa nowadays. And despite having all these calculations at the back of your mind, if unknowingly you do ask her to give you a “50 paise kee coriander”, she gives you one big look…..She means to say “kaun 50 paise kee dhania yaha bechne baitha hain! Do rupaiyae kee dhaniya chahiye toh bolo”.

And she’s right. I don’t blame her, nor do I blame the auto driver. They’re all a part of a larger system; our Economic Upheavals, if I may say so!

So, needless to say that very soon the Hindi phrase “Aamdani Athanni Kharcha Rupaiyya” will also become soon obsolete.

There was a time when 5 paise, 10 paise, 20 paise coins were also in circulation. But now’s a time when they’ve all perished; almost vanished off the charts! The other day one of my friends was teaching her kindergarten going kid about currencies (Wonder what all they teach at kindergarten level these days! Having racked my brain hard, it dawned upon me that when I was in kindergarten, I don’t think I was taught a word about currencies! In fact it wasn’t up until the second grade or so that these heavy weight currencies et al used to get learnt back then!). Anyways, so the little boy’s workbook contained some pictures of 5 paise, 10 paise, 20 paise coins. As the child saw those pictures, he persuaded his mom to show the real coins of 5, 10, and 20 paise. Now my friend was in a fix! Absolutely helpless. From where on earth was she to get coins of these smaller denominations? She tried telling her kid that those coins weren’t in circulation any more. But kids are kids after all! How was she to convince him, what on earth meant  “not in circulation”???

Thus, what’s the crux? It’s that these smaller denominations are indeed losing, no, in fact they’ve lost their sheen. They’ve lost their place in the burgeoning monetary market, where business is all about the crisp notes of 100 Rs, 500 Rs, 1000 Rs, 5000 Rs…..These have become the monetary heavy weights; so who has the time to think about the petite denominations?

So, the next time you stop to reminisce how a 5 paise coin looked like, I guess you’ll have to visit a numismatic centre, because it’s only there that those little droplets in the mammoth ocean of overabundant denomination notes would find place!.

But don’t be heartless. Don’t be surprised or don’t feel bogged down even if in those numismatic centers, you won’t find those petite little valueless coins!

After all, it’s their perishing saga that we’re talking about!

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