As the world celebrates international museum day today, Dhanbad based sexagenarian unique collector, Amrendra Anand (67) proudly flaunts his rich collection of a wide range of articles at his home-based mini museum comprising of rare currencies and coins; wide range of postage stamps, envelopes and inland letters; bank tokens, cheques etc.

Anand, a retired development officer of Life Insurance Corporation of India who is also the member of Numismatic society of India and The philatelic society of India, said, “I developed the habit of collecting rare things since childhood and continued the habit till date.

“I believe that one can provide one's time to everything in life despite professional and family obligations if one leads a disciplined life,” said Anand.

Anand’s numismatic collections at his personal museum at home has 18 files of different varieties of coins, currency notes, Cheques, Hukum nama, Khadi hundi, hundi error notes fancy notes, besides demonetized currency notes.

Anand’s coin collection at his home includes, the coins of the Kushan Period, Khiliji Period, Chola States, Ujjain and Vijaynagar states.

The punch marked coin collection of Anand, include the Mauryan, Magadhan and Delhi Sultanate Coins.

This apart, he also has the special coins known as temple tokens bearing the religious symbols and contemporary forgeries of coins.

The collection of Currency Notes of Anand include the One Anna.

Cowries collected by Amaendra Anand. Picture by Shabbir Hussain

Denomination note of Junagarh state besides the currency notes of Rs 1,000 denominations. The hand made Tibetan Notes which have been declared rare are also in the possession of Anand, who has submitted a research titled British India Coins and Currency Notes before the Numismatic Society of the BHU.

Referring to his Collection of stamps, Anand, who is a member of about a dozen Philatelic societies across the country said that his stamps include both the pre-independence and Post Independence Stamps.

Anand, who has featured in various shows including the Shabaas India aired on Zee TV and Mere Desh Ki Dharati on DD News further says that his pre-independence Stamp Collection include both the Feudatory stamps used by independent princely states and Conventional stamps bearing the symbols of both the respective state and the British Empire.

His philatelic collection includes all the postal stationeries including the Envelopes, Post Card, 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 Post Cards of Queen Victoria and post cards of princely states like Jaipur and Travancore.