OK I think I figured this out. Dot for Bombay Mint Star for Hydrabad Nothing for Calcutta I have been using Indian coins for so many years without knowing this .. jeeeez :goof: Are there any collectors from my part of the world? I am from Bangalore, Inida. I would love to be part of a local coin club and learn more. Do you know of any local coin dealers that I can visit as well. Many thanks again. I feel like a kid in a candy store right now. Cheers lonsharim
Hi lonsharim Actually its 'Diamond' for Bombay Mint and 'Dot' for Noida Mint. You sure need to learn a lot about Indian mint marks.:hammer: Start here Regarding coin clubs; there is none in Bangalore but a few in Chennai. Check Here
lonsharim, There are more mints for Indian (Republic) coins. The Mumbai or Bombay mint is actually a diamond (though it looks like a dot). On earlier proofs the mm was a "B" and now is "M". The Calcutta mint does not have a mint mark. The Hyderabad mm is either a star or earlier ones were a diamond with dot or split diamond. The Noida mint has a dot. There were some PL coins which had a mm of "U" to denote "uncirculated" -- these came in sets--eg. the Nehru UNC coins. As far as foreign mints go, these were-- Mexico City-- "o" over "M" Kremnica-- "MK" in circle Taegu, South Korea-- star below last digit of date Birmingham-- "H" London-- diamond below first date digit Pretoria-- "M" in oval Moscow-- "MMD" in oval Ottawa-- "C" There is one more mint having mm of an elongated "U". This is not mentioned in Krause but this is from the UK. I hope this helps!
LOL Indeed yes. I know next to nothing about any kind of coins. Just started out last week and its been an enjoyable learning curve so far. Plus the people on this forum are very helpful so hopefully I will get to learn more in the days to come
Best of luck. :thumb: If you by chance decide to collect Indian coins seriously; keep me on mind. Maybe we can trade my Calcutta coins with your Hyderabad ones.
Hi lonsharim, thats the beauty of this hobby , welcome to CT, sorry for the late reply but i see KR/(V) have already answered yur query
kidromeo, I intend to collect Indian coins seriously, so its a deal - if I have anything useful, more than happy to trade them with you. I will catalogue what I already have over the weekend. You are right, I had a look at some of the coins I have, and most of them are Hydrabad mint although there are quite a few Bombay mint too. My biggest problem is expanding my collection. Everything I have so far is based only on circulation. Therefore most of the coins I have are from the 1990s and 2000s. Mumbapuri/(V) - Thanks for all the help so far.
That's cool buddy. I remember when I started out in early 1990s I had only coins from late 80s but gradually relatives and friends helped me out building my year and mint mark sets. My collection is still a dwarf compared to some professionals I know but its something to be proud of since almost 90% of it are circulation finds. You are on the right path. PM me your email address and I will send you my cataloged collection of Indian coins. You can probably use it as a template.
i dont want to sound like a true knowledgeable person of coins... but heres what most of them wud say... read/research before u start buying coins... and i may sound insane but circulation is the best way to establish a coin collection... there are a lot of days when i dont think its right about the circulation esp when u dont want find anythin in circ.. here is what i would do... let yur family, friends, friends' family, family' friends and these mentioned pple' neighbor know that u love coins and that u are NOT into it not for profit (if u r not in it for money ) and only for a hobby and u will start getting more coins...:kewl::smile
Thanks for the advice guys. I am amazed that someone can build a large collection only through circulation. I suppose it would also be true to say that you need to show a lot of patience (something I don't have plenty of LOL) I have so far reached 42 unique coins in the last 7 days