PAKISTAN RUMOR CAUSES RUSH TO BUY OLD ONE RUPEE COINS

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V16 2013 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 16, Number 3, January 20, 2013, Article 32

Stories like this pop up more often than you'd think. This time the rumor mills in Pakistan are claiming that certain old one rupee coins contained uranium. Yeah, and the "Golden Dollars" are made of gold, too. -Editor

Thousands of old one-rupee coins were sold for millions of rupees in the Makran, Balochistan, on Tuesday in what became a ‘gold rush’ in the area, The News International, Pakistan’s leading English language newspaper reported on Wednesday.

It said throughout the day, people spent their time looking for the humble golden-coloured coin which was being sold for as much as Rs1,000 in some cases — though no one quite knew why.

The paper said It was rumoured later in the day that it was being smuggled to Iran which was buying it because “it contained uranium”. Regardless of whether or not there was any truth in the story, the frenzy persisted all day.

“I had heard another rumour in the morning that jewellers are buying it because it’s full of gold,” The News quoted a beggar Murad Baloch as saying. “I don’t care about rumours. I sold 150 for Rs45,000 and bought myself a new motorbike.” He thinks he has earned it for he has been begging for coins all his life.

It said the news of the coin’s value spread in the Turbat bazaar thanks to beggars like Murad and drug addicts, who had compromised on their usual rate of not taking anything less than five rupees and were insistent on being given one rupee and only one rupee. And when people came to know of the price of the currency, its rates started skyrocketing.

Forbes Magazine has picked up the story, although in this telling the coins are made with gold. But the author makes a good case for his theory of how the rumors started. -Editor

This is an amusing story from Pakistan. A rumour has taken hold that the old 1 rupee coin is worth substantially more than the 1 rupee face value due to the metal content. Thus people are purchasing them at higher than face value and then trying to pass them along.

What amuses me about the story is that it is in fact true that the coins are worth higher than face value: but for very different reasons than those that are floating around. Indeed, I can see a plausible explanation for how the whole rumour started.

I can imagine some likely lads putting 2 and 2 together and deciding to try and collect as many of the old 1 Rs coins as they can. This hoarding, or even the attempt to hoard, becomes known and then the rumour takes off. The value is vastly higher than the mere doubling that is actually possible. For we do know that markets are subject to these sorts of booms, bubbles and even mass delusions. Most especially in societies where gossip, the grapevine, is the primary method by which news spreads.

Looking around various Pakistani message boards there are quite a number of people offering such 1 Rs coins for 100 Rs and more. Which means that an awful lot of people are going to be disappointed when the truth comes out.

To read the complete article, see: The Pakistani 1 Rupee Coin Is Worth More Than 1 Rs (www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/06/13/the-pakistani-1-rupee-coin-is-worth-more-than-1-rs/)

Wayne Homren, Editor