Collection of rare things is a unique habit and a Dhanbad-based retired development officer, Amrendra Anand is gearing up to stake claim for the Guinness Book of World Records for having the highest number of around 1200 rare cheques of over 400 different banks, around 300 of which have closed down.
Not only this but Amrendra Anand (66), a resident of Kusum Vihar in Dhanbad, has also a collection of over 170 Metal Bank Tokens, which are provided by the banks to the customers for security-related checks for bank-related work.
Talking to The Telegraph Online on Thursday, Anand said, “While dusting my bank documents, I found personnel cheque issued by famous industrialist and capitalist of South India LT Chettiar on the occasion of Diwali in 1940 as Diwali greetings for his well-wishers."
“I have been in Notaphily (collection of bank-related documents) since about 10 years ago and have a collection of a large number of passbooks, share certificates of private shareholders of these banks apart from other things like cheques, bank tokens, etc.,” said Anand and added that he is in the process of bank cheques collection of around 100 more banks after which he will approach for the registration of his collection in the Guinness Book of World Records.
“My collection of bank documents date back to cheques of 1870 era when a chain of banks spread all through India,” informed Anand.
“All of these banks including the Reserve Bank of India and Imperial Bank of India were private banks having private shareholders which were nationalized on January 1, 1949 and July 1, 1955, respectively,” stated Anand. He also informed that the first bank in India was established in 1906 as Bank of Bengal which was later reorganized as Imperial Bank in 1921 and finally nationalized with the merging of several small banks in 1955 and known as the State Bank of India.
Amrendra Anand's collection of Bank Cheques at his residence in Kusum Vihar Colony, Koylanagar in Dhanbad on Thursday. Picture by Gautam Dey.
When asked that how he collected the rare bank documents, Anand revealed that he has purchased some of the cheques and bank tokens from some old capitalists and shareholders of these banks and other collections accumulated through exchange among each other with around 100 notaphilists of the country.
The collection of Anand, a famous numismatist, includes 18 files of different varieties of coins, currency notes, cheques, hukum namas, hundi, khadi hundi, error notes, fancy notes, etc. besides demonetized currency notes, etc.
His collection also includes Rs 1000 notes issued by George VI in June 1938 and demonetized in April 1946, Rs 1000 currency notes issued in 1954 and demonetized in 1978 and Rs 1000 notes issued in October 2000 and demonetized on November 8, 2016.
Anand who is a member of over a dozen philatelic societies said that his pre-independence Stamp Collection includes both the Feudatory Stamps used by independent princely states and Conventional Stamps bearing the symbols of both the respective state and the British Empire.
Anand has also the collection of all the postal stationeries including the envelopes, postcards, inland letters, and registered letters from 1862 to 1981 i.e. from the era of Queen Victoria to King George VI in the pre-Independence era. His postal stationeries include postcards of Queen Victoria and postcards of princely states like Jaipur and Travancore.
