In India Coins come in many denominations like 25p, 50p, 1 rupee, 2 rupee, 5 rupee and 10 rupees. Reserve Bank of India has the sole authority to mint coins and distribute in India. Earlier there were even 10p,5p, 1p coins. But in this modern world with prices of essential commodities soaring sky high the use for coins of lesser denomination is very less and hence they have almost become extinct.
The most popular coins that play a vital role in the everyday life of a common Indian are the 2 rupee, 5 rupee and the 10 rupee coins. Five rupee coins come in 3 types a silver coated lighter coin, a steel coated coin and a gold coated heavier coin. Of these I prefer the gold coated coin. It is sparkling yellow in colour, bright and really catches the eye.
The biggest use of coins comes in transportation and while shopping with petty vendors. Coins are absolutely essential when you travel by the local transportation system like the train or the bus, because conductors insist that you give them the right change for the fare and often do not hesitate to throw you out if you do not give them the right change. Probably it is only in these two situations that people really look to coins. But in other places like in restaurants and in while shopping in malls people always prefer to use the currency notes for purchase. They find it very embarrassing and silly to use coins in such places and always prefer notes. Also in this modern world prices of most commodities have risen to greater values. So it is becomes easy to handle currency notes rather than coins. But a lot of effort is being put in place by Reserve bank of India to encourage people to use coins in their everyday life. Because in every day life the purchases and trades are often done with petty vendors and in such situation coins could easily be used. Special coin vending machines and coin distribution centres have been set up at every city to make sure that enough coins are distributed to the people. Unlike currency notes counterfeit coins cannot be created more easily. So this is also one of the reasons why the government intends to promote the use of coins.
Though I am not a ardent collector of coins or any items, while writing this blog a very sweet incident that happened recently came into my mind. Well one day my little daughter who is 10 years old came up to me and told that she had been saving coins for nearly 2 years and wanted me look at her collection and count them for her. Well, it was really quite a huge collection of the gold coated Indian 5 rupee coins. Her collection was really heavy like my 5 kg exercise dumb ell. Well I told her to form sets of 10 and arrange in a matrix form, so that it would be easy to count. Well it really came up to 3900 rupees. She was very happy and asked if she could use it buy a barbie doll and snow white girl's gown. To which I immediately obliged. Just then my wife entered the room and I told my wife to get the money from my daughter and get her the things she wanted. My wife eyes really opened wide and she immediately snapped by saying, "You expect me to carry this huge load of coins to the shopping mall and look like a clown, weird." she said. It is only then I realised that this red hot currency that was lying in front of me was a difficult object to dispose. Well, I told her that she could find a lots people who are in need of these coins and exchange with them. Like the mineral water water, or the fruits vendor or the grocery vendor who are petty businessmen in need of change all the time. She liked my idea and immediately called our grocer, our water supplier and the vegetable vendor and exchanged rupees one thousand with each one them. Still a thousand more remained, which she he herself bought from my daughter as she was in need of change to do her petty shopping or her travelling. Thus the matter was solved and my daughter was flying in the sky with her dreams of getting the new doll and dress. I slowly reclined to my chair and closed my eyes and just traversed back a decade and a half into my school and college days. Well those days the world was much cheap and my pockets were always filled with coins and i was always very delighted about it. All it needed was a 25 p to get a lovely candy to a cake or a fruit. But today the coin 25p is almost extinct in the India as nothing could be bought with that money. How the world has changed in such a fast pace, it's so hard to believe the surge in prices and the surge in the salaries of people with the introduction of the concept of outsourcing from the west. Today people start with a five figure salary at the beginning of their Carree. As I reflected on these things I really did not know whether to smile or to frown, but nothing can be done, as the world has a wheel of its own and it keeps spinning as it feels. I gently closed my eyes and took a short nap just be away from this busy world for a while.
