2017-01-20 Fri

Shyam Sundar Sadhnani is a utensil seller at the Chang Gate market in Bewar who has been collecting ancient, medieval & modern coins minted all over the world from the last 25 years.

He set a Limca Book record last year by collecting coins from 193 different countries. He set another record by collecting 519 coins issued by the East India Company and British Empire. He also has 300 princely states coins; coins from 134 countries that no longer exist; coins by the Kushans or Indo-Sasanians of the 3rd century; Prithviraj era coins of 11th century; rare Brazil Rio 2016 Olympics coin, 2nd century Wu Zhu Dynasty coins, 22 1 rupee coins by 22 Mughal emperors between 1526 and 1836, 1803 British era one penny to the last coin in 1937; Gold coin with an image of bird from Coorg, copper coins from Datia, Eliechpur, Dhar, Dewas, Jaipur, Jawad (Gwalior) depicting lions, tigers, horses, peacocks, various languages, agriculture etc; a copper coin from Pune of an African country which merged with Kenya.

It all started 25 years back when his customer gave him old coins instead of utensils. Today he has a collection of 5,000 coins. He has travelled all over the country and has spent Rs 25 lakh for his hobby His family members did not like it in the beginning, but now all of them support him by helping him preserve the coins and research. He soon plans to take this up full time.