Auto driver takes students on a trip into coins

TIRUCHY: An auto driver turned numismatist, from a village near Pattukkottai in Thanjavur, on Thursday, displayed his collections as part of efforts to educate students of government schools to know several aspects of the history.

Kathiresan (31), a Tamil graduate and an auto driver of Peravurani, developed interest in collecting coins after he got East India Company’s coins once. After this, his search for ancient coins has been continuing till date. Kathiresan spent a lot of time travelling to various places to expand his collection and now it is two gunny bags full. The denomination of coins range from 10 paise to 50 paise apart from those belonging to the Chola, British and Mughal periods.

“When I saw a one anna coin accidentally, a sudden idea flashed and thus my hobby to collect coins commenced a few years back and apart from the ring coins, I have several ancient pieces. This apart, I have Rs 60,000 worth 25 paise Indian coins, Rs 11,000 worth 20 paise coins and Rs 10,000 worth 10 paise coins,” Kathiresan said.

He also has a large collection of coins from countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Nigeria, China, Thailand and Egypt.

With his bags full of coins, Kathiresan approached the Education Department officials and sought permission to conduct a coin exhibition for the benefit of students from government schools.

As the officials approved his request, an expo featuring his collection was organised in Pattukkottai and Peravurani unions. On Thursday, he displayed his coins at Kurinji Government Middle School and explained the special and unique features of his collection to the students.