MULE COINS

I happened to view the wall posting of Mr. Rointon Andhyarujina about Mule coins.

His post ends as follows:

"So mules are mismatches done by the asst mint master with old dies mostly to complete an order or whatever. Errors are the real minting mistakes.

It will be well worth your while to bear this in mind as also India being the only country to have a whole lot of mules far from than US and UK combined and also a few more countries thrown in. As far as I am concerned my commentary of mules is over."

Yes, Sir. Well said. I fully agree with you. What else is a mule but a mismatch?

He has also elaborated that the BI coins would be having any number of mules.

Why go after the mules? Let us be content with going after the thoroughbred horses.

Beginners would be well advised to study well the coins that they have and that come into their hands and try to understand and be able to recognize a mule or die variety coin and collect it rather than paying a few hundreds or few thousands to "buy" a mule.

One should bear in mind that in India many of these Mules and varieties are suspect.

Would I like to buy a Mule coin? Not sure, Sir!  Not sure.

But the day I get a mule coin in circulation and I am able to recognize it, then that coin would be worth more than a lakh of rupees to me. But the chances of my getting a coin like that is one in a million! Why should I bother about it?

Your comments are welcome!

M.B.A. (Most Brilliant Academics!!)

Sometimes you come across these M.B.A.'s who have some ingenious ways to increase their respective business. The case of the toothpaste port opening is too well known.

I deal in items manufactured by ABC company  and a young sales executive selling the same items manufactured by XYZ company walked into my showroom. I was not in my office and since all decisions are taken with my advise they put me on to him over the phone.

I greeted him and told him that he is in the wrong place and that the company dealing in products manufactured by his company XYZ is five doors further down.
He said that he knew that but he wanted to help me and that he would go to some clients for canvassing on my behalf!

I retorted: Why do you want to help me? Please go to your dealer and help him. Business is very dull nowadays.

You see this is the game companies are upto nowadays. They have their dealers who are saddled with stocks and wondering how to sell them. They will not buy fresh stocks. So the executives go to dealers selling competition and try to push some stocks giving tall stories.

On collecting coins

Numismatics - collecting coins.

========================

As a young boy whenever I went to a shop and got a coin which was different from the normal ones, I used to put it away in a box.Some of my relatives who went abroad used to give a coin or two. This way I had some 200 coins and I was under the impression that I am a numismatist. Yes and no!!

About two years back, I had a friend who had retired from work. He used to work in the Madras High Court. He was a collector of coins for almost 30 years and had a lot of coins. He fell ill and wanted to sell all of his collection to meet the hospital expenses. I went to his house and he showed me his coins. I was awe-struck. He told me that if somebody gave him 5 lakhs, he would part with his collection.

With a sincere desire to help him, I approached my friend Raman Sankaran who is a numismatist and a specialist in mediveal coins. He came and saw the coins, some with a magnifier. He offered Rs.1.2 lakhs.

Subsequently when he spoke to me he described that collection as " a child's collection". He went on to explain that if you are seriously interested in collecting, then you have to pick a theme or a period. For example, Republic India coins, proof and unc sets, one coin from each country in the world, coins of Pallava kings and so on. 

Then you have to focus on that and start collecting.  Well that is for the serious collector. But I am a half-baked self styled numismatist!

I was (and still am) interested in collecting those coins which actually come into my hands as circulation coins or given by my friends.

My own focus is on Republic of India coins after 1947 and I try and collect these coins. But then, to complete or give value addition to this I would have to collect coins from every mint. (Mint-wise collection). That would be a far cry right now. I wish to collect as much as I can and pass on the collection to my grandson if he becomes interested in future.

Of course there are a few coins which I may never get. Like the International Crop Science issue or the 1996 Bose coin. Who knows?

If I have enough money I may get these too (hope I don't get cheated with fakes!!).

Tips to collect coins? I carry 10-20 coins with me at all times and if somewhere some commemorative coin is seen I would exchange it with my coin of same value. For example, there is a big vegetable super market near my house where a guy sits with lot of coins near the cashier.

I look at the lot and exchange a few coins sometimes.

Shops? There are very few shops and it is difficult to know these and also to get there, being far away. Sometimes I go there or send someone and BUY 100 coins. Say 100 nos. of 5 rupee Vaishno Devi Shrine. This is a small craze. Not collecting!

Also I have a passion for silver coins of British India period and I have a few coins from this period. But to gain knowledge in this area is arduous.

Thanks to internet. There are very good groups in Facebook where one can advance his/her knowledge on coins and even bid in the auctions to add to one's collection.

Happy collecting!

Don't know? Scratching your head may help!!!

As usual I tried jotting down my expenses for yesterday.

After writing down all the expenses, I found that there was a short of Rs.90/=

Now-a-days I hardly go out and so there is no need to open my purse often.

I gazed and gazed at the ceiling trying to recall what all I did during the course of
the day. Nothing dawned.

Then, and then, as people usually do, I scratched my head.

Ah, Ha!! Yesterday morning I stepped into my salon and had a hair-cut and paid Rs.90/=.

Sometimes scratching your head may solve your problem!!

What can Re.1/- do?

What can something worth Re.1/- do?

"Oh, nothing," you might say.

But at times something worth Re.1/- can do a lot of things, save time and money.

Yesterday I went along with my friend who had to sign a bill in a government office to
collect payment.

He took out his seal and pen and asked the clerk to give him a revenue stamp.

"The person holding the stamps is on leave" he said.

Without the stamp nothing can be done. We have to go and get a stamp from somewhere or
come again the next day.

I took out my purse and gave him a revenue stamp which I always carry for any emergency.

I was happy to see my friend looking at me with gratitude.

Why talk about air-craft engine to sell air-conditioners?

Well you see to sell air-conditioners you have to talk about air-conditioners, the comfort they give and so on.

But sales guys are sales guys and they often keep on talking and telling so many things.

Carrier Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of United Technologies. And Pratt and Whitney is a part of UT and they manufacture jet engines.

So much so when Carrier first came into India we often used to mention Pratt and Whitney jet engines and that Carrier is a part of United Technologies and so on.....

A truth, but not the whole truth. But it worked in many cases!!

A quiz: What is the relationship between A and AK ??!!

Sometimes declining to serve is also service...!!

A customer rang me up and requested that air-conditioners in their office may be seen and offer
for maintaining them on a contract be tendered.

I went and discussed with them. I came to know that they have a number of <1 ton units which
are not in the current line of manufacture with them. It has been my experience that these machines
cannot be repaired once they go out of order.

And then they had a fairly large number of units which are all more than 7 years old. Well, these had
IMHO outlived their useful life and in the verge of being replaced in case they go out of order. Spares for
such units are not, one could even say not-at-all available.

So, I wrote to them saying that I desist from giving an offer for service. As and when they fail they could be replaced.

It used to be a joke that business means somehow getting the other man's money into our pockets. It is no longer a joke and people resort to this these days.

What is the point in my telling tall stories and collecting some money from them and later trying to wriggle out of difficult issues like non-availability of spares and so on?

Sometimes declining service is also service.