High-cost hobbies : Kasur numismatist in pursuits of rare currencies

With thousands of coins in his treasury, Shakeel Ahmad wills to donate his collection to a museum

LAHORE:

The pursuit of passion is a priceless endeavor, to which many dedicate their entire lives.

No different is the story of Kasur District’s Shakeel Ahmad Khan, who’s spent two decades of his youth building one of the most extensive private collection of coins and currency notes in the country.

The young numismatist’s collection features more than 250,000 banknotes and coins from over different 250 countries. Among his treasury are also coins dating back to 2,500 year ago, attributed to Macedonian king Alexander the Great as well as all memorial currency issued by the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to-date.

“I discovered the hobby some 20 years ago, when a family-friend handed me some Canadian coins. That day onwards I started collecting every interesting coin I came across, but it still did not occur to me that this was a real hobby until I graduated from university. Before that, I was only hoarding but my passion really took off when I started learning about the coins and their history,” said Khan.

Other than all kinds of currency, Shakeel Ahmad Khan’s collection also features over 10,000 commemorative stamps from various time periods. Whereas, his extensive treasury of 250,000 coins and currency includes 20,000 coins, 5,000 currency notes and over 800 memorial coins of varying values from different parts of the world.

 

“For the first few years after independence, Pakistan did not have any currency of its own. We extensively relied on over-printing on existing British-era banknotes. Today, these notes are quite rare to find, but I have more than a few preserved in collection. Similarly, Pakistan’s first currency notes were printed in England, since we still did not have any currency printing operations of our own. I have those notes too, along with coins from various empires and dynasties of the subcontinent, including the Mughal period, the Sikh rule and the reign of the British East India Company.”

According to Shakeel Ahmad Khan, who is also well-versed in regional history, currency notes were first issued in the Indian sub-continent during the rule of Queen Victoria. “I have notes too as well as coins and currencies from all the empires that came and went; countries around the globe and even those which you can no longer spot on a map,” the collector told.

Talking about the Lahore Museum, Khan was of the opinion that although the institution is known to house the biggest collection of coins in the country, many of its rarest articles on display are just replicas of the original. “The museum should consider putting the original articles on display for enthusiasts and hobbyist to come see,” he asserted.

 

As per the numismatist, there are two fundamental ways of building a coin collection in Pakistan. The cheapest way is to seek or source other hobbyists from around the world and involve them in an exchange. The second way is to simply buy the coins from a coin trader. “Due to all kinds of foreign exchange liabilities and lack of convenient international payment options, the second method becomes too expensive for most Pakistanis. So we largely rely on trading coins.”

When asked about the estimated value of coins in his collection, Khan said that different coins are valued differently depending on their age, rarity and material. “I have a gold coin which is estimated to be worth around Rs35,000. But for me, as a collector, it is the coin’s age and rarity which matters more than its price,” he commented.

 

 

Published in The Express Tribune, November 2^nd, 2020.