INDIAN COLLECTOR OF ERROR BANKNOTES PROFILED

Most of us have been asked that plain straight question: ‘What are your hobbies?’ Your brain scans for something interesting to say to try and make yourself sound more sophisticated. Perhaps you're part of a sports team, you go to the gym, enjoy reading, watching TV, gardening, coin collection, foreign currency collection, stamps...The list goes on.

But you probably don't regularly collect ‘error’ currency notes. That is a peculiar hobby and it’s been Kalady resident Shyju Kudiyirippil’s hobby for the past 20 years. With more than 500 error currency notes in his collection, Shyju, a senior public relations professional, and a numismatist for the last 16 years with membership in several numismatic societies and clubs in major Indian cities, says he started his hobby 20 years ago, when he found a Rs 100 note with abated colors on it. “That was a printing mistake and I bought it from another guy out of curiosity. Thus, I started collecting these error notes,” says Shyju.

He possesses some of the rarest collection of coins and notes with printing errors including the one rupee note that was printed during the British rule in 1917, a double-decked Rs 1000 note, Gandhi-less notes, notes without flag over the Red Fort, notes even without the Red Fort and overweight notes. He has everything. “These currency notes’ value goes beyond the actual value. Sometimes it is five times the actual value,” he added. Shyju also has a collection of notes brought out after demonetisation, with printing mistakes.

To read the complete article, see:
An unusual numismatic passion (https://www.deccanchronicle.com/lifestyle/viral-and-trending/080418/an-unusual-numismatic-passion.html)

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