"When Tughlaq introduced copper currency in the 14th century, he made a critical mistake," narrated Bhandare. "He failed to put an official stamp on the coins. Soon, every housewife was melting her copper vessels and every neighbourhood had sprouted a mint!"

In those times, the face value of a coin was the same as its intrinsic metal value. Tughlaq’s idea was to substitute silver coins with token copper coins, only that he misjudged his subjects. They paid their taxes with copper coins and demanded wages in silver. Soon the treasury was overflowing with counterfeits and the economy collapsed. Those 700-year-old fakes can still be found in scrap shops across India.

"The mood of a period is reflected in its coins," observed Subhadra Anand, a history professor pointing at the grandiose Gupta dinaras with Sanskrit inscriptions and oranamental Mughal mohurs on display. "They are bookmarks pointing to a lost or misread past."

Indeed, markings on the Gupta coins provide information about religious rites while those dating back to Kanishka’s time feature Iranian goddesses and Zoroastrian concepts, suggestive of the multicultural stands that shaped India’s cultural fabric.

"Emperor Akbar issued coins on Ram and Sita," revealed Bhandare. "Then there was Mohammad Ghauri, seen usually in negative fanatical terms, who issued coins with Goddess Lakshmi on them. Coins of Shah Alam II had Urdu inscriptions surrounded by motifs of holly, shamrock and thistle!"

Coins have also helped linguists to decode ancient scripts. For example, the bilingual coins issued by the Greeks, helped scholars decipher the ancient Brahmi and Kharoshti scripts. "This was largely due to the efforts of two men — one a vagabond and the other an academic," said Bhandare.

The vagabond was Charles Masson, who was despatched to Afghanistan by the East India Company on a reconnaissance-cum-archaeological in 1835. He sent back bagloads of old coins to Calcutta, where James Princep drew upon their markings to crack the Brahmi script and eventually, the Ashokan inscriptions at Allahabad and Delhi. "With this, a huge vista of Indian studies opened," Bhandare informed.

Coins also reveal the eccentricities of rulers. For instance, the Mughals regarded coinage a divine duty and never lost an opportunity in striking coins in their name — even if they were to rule for a few days. According to Anand, it was one important way to stake their claim to power.

Thus Farrukhsiyar, one of the four emperors who ruled briefly in 1719, may not be an important figure in Indian history, but is a big name for coin collectors. "It is known that he had coins struck in his name, but we have not found a single one yet," Bhandare revealed.

But then, it is not rarity that determines the price of coins among collectors. "Emperor Shivaji’s gold coins are really rare, but they don’t have a market," explained Bhandare. "On the other hand, the fairly common Jehangir gold mohurs — especially those with the 12 signs of the zodiac — command a price of anything up to Rs 3.5 million each!" MF