“Good morning Bhaisahab. Do you have a coin-collecting album?” I messaged a dear friend whose family owned, perhaps, the oldest book-cum-stationery store in my town. A few seconds later, he texted, “I used to sell them in the 1970s. Let me check once. Else I will get it made for you!”
A book lover was carried away by the nostalgia of the times when he merrily stocked and sold coin and stamp albums to enthusiastic teenagers. It was early morning, and we were both driving down memory lane.
I had given myself this morning the task of organising and decluttering the locker. Silver coins scurried out from tiny brightly coloured pouches. While those wrapped in plastic cover still shone brightly, the others dragged behind grey and worn out. King George V peeped out from one of the coins, and from yet another, Queen Victoria. The East India Company followed quickly, and then our visionaries and leaders. While the latter were comparatively recent mints, the others dated from 1800.
