Reserve Bank of India (RBI) clarified that Rs 10 coins issued so far in all the 14 designs are valid because of reports about people not accepting these coins in fear of their being fake. But coin-collectors, wanting to have commemorative coins, have no knowledge about their availability. RBI should arrange availability of all previous commemorative coins for desiring ones at selected bank-branches across the country, all postal philatelic centres apart from all RBI offices at face-value. These counters should also sell commemorative-coin sets, issued on occasion of issue of a new coin right from the day of release, abolishing cumbersome procedure to get these through advance booking (to be delivered months or years after their release), thus killing the very purpose of commemorating an occasion through issue of commemorative coins.
These counters should also provide silver-alloyed coins on their face-value as was the system earlier like on October 2, 1969 on issue of Rs 10 silver-alloyed coin to commemorate Gandhi birth-centenary. But system of having face-value of silver-alloyed coin at value much less than the mint-value will have to be replaced by a system where face-value of silver-alloyed coin may be say double the metal-value. Presently silver-alloy coin, in denomination of Rs 100, has metal-value multiple times than the minted denomination of the coin.
Madhu Agrawal
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
