Rare coins find common destination at Yusuf’s collection

Yusuf, a retired government official and a resident of Patna, tries to find traces of history behind these coins. By doing this, he says he is trying to preserve history.

New Delhi: Nothing can define the passion, it could be towards anybody or anything, and sometimes it becomes the only reason to dedicate the whole life. Syed Rumanul Faizi Yusuf’s has a passion for collecting rare coins. Today, he has a collection of over 7,000 coins that includes currency from recent to ancient times.

Yusuf, a retired government official and a resident of Patna, tries to find traces of history behind these coins. By doing this, he says he is trying to preserve history.

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He diligently notes all the details about the coins, like when the coin came into circulation or got demonetised along with the metal used in it. These rare coins refresh the memories of rulers, emperors and nawabs of Indian History, he says.

In around 50 years of his coin collection journey, he has preserved coins from Chandragupta Emperor, Modern to Mughal Shivaji, British period, Roman Empire, Indo-Greek, Indian Princely States, Indo-French, Indo-Dutch, rare collection of Portuguese and Ottoman Empire coins and a set of 20, 25, 50, 60, 75, 100, 125, 150, 200, 250, 350, 500, 550, 1,000 rupees coins.

“So far, there is a total collection of more than 7,000 rare coins, while I have about 2,500 coins from 200 countries and a collection of notes from 125 countries,” he said.

The dedication of collecting coins is so much that once Yusuf came out from the mosque after offering namaz, he saw a coin of Rs 5 in the bowl of fakir which he did not have, and when he looked at it, he gave the fakir a note of Rs 10 and picked it up.