LOOSE CHANGE: FEBRUARY 12, 2023

 

My name is Aarav Dokania, and I'm a 19-year-old numismatist from India. I specialize in British India Coinage from 1835 through 1947. I started collecting coins at the age of eight or nine years old. My late uncle collected coins, and after his passing, his collection was inherited by my elder brother and sister, who also collect coins. This tradition of coin collecting in my home led me to collect coins naturally.

In my early days, I would collect foreign and Indian coins that looked different from the ones in circulation. I was such a pain for all my family and relatives, always asking for coins. I used to believe that the age of a coin determined its rarity. I didn't have much access to the internet and there were fewer resources available online then. Being from a rural part of the country also left me with little chance of fraternizing with any professional numismatist. Over the next few years, I would go on to collect without any knowledge and understanding, but with a passion to learn.

From the age of 12 to 17, my involvement with the hobby nearly came to a standstill because of my years in a boarding school. It was during the pandemic-related lockdown that I had the time to sit down and look through my collection once again, and it was then that I also was able to connect to the numismatic community. It all started when I came across a YouTube video that covered Indian coins, through which I was able to connect to all the groups on Facebook, where much of the hobby community interacts. I started to learn more about the subject and about coin grading, third-party grading, numismatic forums, and auction houses and started to have conversations with dealers and other senior numismatists who were always very kind to answer my questions and were of great help.

It was at this point that I got into British Indian coins, which I found fascinating with a very organized market. I quickly immersed myself fully and got very serious about it and started to give five to eight hours a day to the hobby, including reading books and articles, going through auction records, and evaluating major Indian collections that were auctioned.

I'm currently assembling a complete date-and-mint set of one rupee coins from 1835 to 1947, with the end goal of making it the best set of rupee coins ever assembled. The one rupee coinage has always fascinated me the most because of the beautiful designs and rich history it carries.

To read the complete article, see:
British Indian Coinage Draws This Young Numismatist (https://www.pcgs.com/news/british-indian-coinage-draws-this-young-numismatist#.Y-eTOSnEy7g.gmail)

 

German bruno schroeder88 year old mining engineer Died alone in his home in the town of Metingen, in the North Rhine-Westphalia region. When the officers entered his house, A real treasure discovered: India's largest private libraryAccording to Der Spiegel. about 70,000 books cover every inch of every wall in the house, All fully classified and registered in one computer.

No one in his town knew much about his life. Yes, his widow is admitted to a residence and the couple had no children, but there were others. Bruno was A lonely man, a hermit who hardly spoke to his neighbors, Except for one: The Town Bookseller. There he ordered between 20 and 30 titles of all genres every week, except for pink novels. Lots of poetry, novels, history books.

He was our best repeat customer for many years. His books were very important to him., I kept them like a treasure, bookstore owner Silke Meyer told the WDR series.

The collection extends to all corners of the house, even to the attic roof, Bruno made the shelves himself in a small workshop in the basement of the house. He was very skilled with his hands, recalls Renate Abelon. Joe now takes over Bruno's inheritance at the request of his widow.

To read the complete article, see:
Late Bruno's 70,000 books: Germany's largest private library discovered (https://worldnationnews.com/late-brunos-70000-books-germanys-largest-private-library-discovered/)

To watch the video, see:
From the basement to the roof: a house full of books (https://www1.wdr.de/fernsehen/lokalzeit/muensterland/videos/video-vom-keller-bis-zum-dach-ein-haus-voller-buecher-100.html)

The U.S. is gingerly considering whether to adopt a digital version of its currency, one better suited for today's increasingly cashless world, ushering in what could be one of the dollar's most fundamental transformations.

In that scenario, the U.S. would not only mint the coins and print paper bills but also issue digital cash, or a central bank digital currency (CBDC), that would be stored in apps or "digital wallets" on our smartphones.

We could then use them to pay for things, just like we do with Venmo or Apple Pay, and no physical money would change hands.

It's a vision of a cashless future that other countries are already embracing. China, for example, has unveiled the digital yuan on a trial basis. India this week said it would create a digital rupee.

Now the U.S. is weighing whether it wants to get into the game.

To read the complete article, see:
The U.S. is considering a radical rethinking of the dollar for today's digital world (https://www.npr.org/2022/02/06/1072406109/digital-dollar-federal-reserve-apple-pay-venmo-cbdc)

To read an earlier E-Sylum article, see:
LOOSE CHANGE: JUNE 13, 2021: Fed Explores Digital Dollars (https://www.coinbooks.org/v24/esylum_v24n24a31.html)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web