Old Indian currency a connection to the past

DUBAI // When Ramkumar takes out his treasured collection of rare Indian notes, he thinks of his grandfather’s generation who used the currency more than 60 years ago.

“These are antiques and these notes are important because these are 100 per cent Indian. Before this, the notes were British-Indian,” said Mr Ramkumar, a financial consultant and a numismatist specialising in collecting notes from the region.

“It’s not just the financial value because the notes are rare, it’s the history. This is a treasure that was used by our grandfathers and it has survived for such a long time.” The collection, which runs into thousands, exists in a building in Deira at Numisbing, a company founded by Mr Ramkumar and other collectors.

The Republic Day collection of Re 1, 2, 5, 10, 100, 1,000 and 10,000 notes will be on display and open to the public for the next fortnight. Of the series, the Rs 10,000 note is particularly precious because it was demonitised in 1978.

“Someone had to be really rich not to encash this note in the bank because it could have purchased 1.5 kilograms of gold at that time,” he said. Old Indian currency is also significant in this region because it was legal tender in the Trucial States until 1966.

“For Indians like me, these rupees hold sentimental value for us because when our fathers came here, they were paid in rupees then and not dirhams,” said Steve Desouza, who works with a car company and is a collector specialising in the Trucial States gold and silver coins and British India notes.

“I was born in Dubai and lived in the UAE all my life and notes and coins are important. Even with the local population, these are like old photographs, like a bridge to people’s memories.”

The Republic Day collection is on display until February 9 between 10am and 7pm at Numisbing, 104, Doha Centre Building, Al Maktoum Road, near Union Metro station, Deira, Dubai.

rtalwar@thenational.ae