2017-07-20 Thu

31-year-old Manish Dameja from Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh, has a collection of one lakh rare coins, from 500 countries, which are up to 400 years old. He has got a place in all kinds of record books like Guinness World Records, Limca Book of Records, India Book of Records, Asia Book of Records, Golden Book of World Records, Record Holders Republic, UK, World Records India, Star Book of Records and Assist World Records.

Manish started collecting coins when he was young and inherited a few coins from his great-grandfather who was a rich businessman and a coin collector. Manish was inspired by his great-grandfather to start collecting coins. When asked to present recycled materials in a creative way for a class assignment, he used his great-grandfather’s coin collection for his project.

After his great grand father’s death in 1986, his family went to major debts and had to sell their bungalow. But Manish kept collecting more coins. His parents wanted him to become doctors and engineers, but Manish chose to become a government officer!

Manish has won 25 national and international awards in various fields like Social Work, Coin Collection and Education, including Rajiv Gandhi Excellence awards, and ones from the Ministry of Telecommunication.