Bengaluru, KARNATAKA :

In 1913, Maharaja Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV appointed William Clarence Rose as the first chief manager of the Bank of Mysore. Whilst in office, Rose collected all British India banknotes of denominations five, ten, fifty and one hundred in a series. When he retired in 1925, he received a wax-paper scroll rolled into a carved silver sheath, mounted on a teak base. Everything was made from melted silver coinage issued by the Raj.

Rose passed all this onto his daughter Vera Katherine Maud Collins, who bequeathed it to her grandson Simon Collins.The latter remembers how the “gift was kept in a 1937 coronation stamp album“ and was passed on two months before his grandmother’s death in 1982. This legacy -along with other historical nuggets -is finding its way back to the city .

The collection will be housed in a museum of Indian currency, expected to come up in Bengaluru next year.

The project is the brainchild of realtor and currency collector Rezwan Razack, who has been collecting Indian paper money since 1971. Spread across 4,000 square feet and located off Brunton Road, the museum is expected to be open to the public in the latter half of 2017. “The intention of setting up the Museum of Indian Paper Money is to display all that there is in my collection. It is to create awareness about our history and our journey so far as a nation, through our currency ,“ says Razack,  who is the managing director of city-based Prestige Estates Projects and chairman of the International Banknotes Society’s India chapter.

Among the world’s most prolific collectors of rare currencies, Razack has preserved bills dating back to early 1770s.These include the uni-face (onesided) notes first launched by the government of India, portrait notes of King George V & VI, cash coupons of princely states, Indian notes issued in Pakistan and Burma, special issues made for the Persian Gulf and Haj Pilgrims and all variants of Indian notes -from the Independence era till the latest demonetisation exercise.

E a ch n o t e links us to the way of life in the past and unearths lesser-known stories of our city and country, believes Razack. For instance, on display will be 100-odd Prisoner of War coupons issued by the British. “There were eight camps across India, including Bengaluru, which issued bills from one anna to ten rupees,“ he says.

The museum will comprise of interactive displays, historic facts and trivia, along with stories and essays written by Razack from his own journey and experience as a collector.Architects are working on the blueprint of the museum and estimates should be drawn up by the end of the year, Razack informs.

source:  http://www.economictimes.indiatimes.com / The Economic Times / Home> ET Home> Magazines> Panache / by Divya Shekhar, ET Bureau / November 24th, 2016