Coins Disappear!

It has been so from a few decades now, that a lot of coins minted in India have disappeared. No am not talking of any stealing or burglary but straightly to put it , they are out of circulation. You've guessed it right! I am talking about the 25 paise.

I had been hearing from quite some time that the 25 paise denomination coins will soon be a history. And then one fine day, recently, I read the lines on a daily subscribe which clearly said "25 paise coins will be out of markets officially". Ahh.. now it was finally announced. Soon the poor damn cute small coins will be an item to be kept in the museum.

I have wondered why all these coins vanish? Is it only to do with loosing their value. First it was the 1,2 and 3 paise then the 5, 10 paise and then 20 paise. Now the 25 paise is the target. I remember each of their shapes and do have a coin of each denomination for the future to come , I can display them out to public. :)

I began a hunt to find some answers sitting in front of my system. The search engines brought up a list of articles , invested a few minutes to read the top ones.

"Inflation forces 25 paise coins out of circulation!"
"RBI to withdraw circulation of 25 paise coins"
"Swap 25 paise coins before June 29"
Many more ....

One interesting piece:"There are stories going around that since the intrinsic value of the minted metal is far higher than the face value of the coins, they vanish fast because they are being smuggled across into our neighbouring countries and melted for the metallic value. There are unconfirmed, hearsay reports that the metal is used even to make weapons, native guns and razor blades."

Surpsised? shocked ??

What so ever the case be, we will not be seeing these coins anymore in circulation. Official date being the 30th June 2011.

Last week on the way back home was listening to one of the Bangalore radio stations and then, there is this question on air " Do you have a story about the 25 paise that you would want to share with all those listening to the show?"

This Q worked my brains so fast that I went back in time to the days of school. That was when 25 paise meant a fistful of sweet meats or a yummy milk chocolate or the cost of a local Tamarind lolly-pop. I splurted out my thoughts and sis joined in the conversation. There were some unusual stories from fellow listeners who shared it on air - few interesting ones :

1) A bunch of friends kept 25 paise coins on a train track and the bent coins are a part of each of their friendship collection. Wonderful thought!

2) 2 brothers used to search the entire house to get 1 rupee 25 paise to be offered to God for the Puja by their Mom! Wonder what they'll do after June 30th. The guy speaking made a mention of it too. He says the God's Puja offering rate also will be inflated to 5 rupees. Lol:)

3) A young lady now, talking of her school days says she used to buy some toffees in order to tender exact change of 75 paise, to the rude and ugly looking bus conductor, who otherwise would yell at her. (I could relate myself to this young lady. Days I travelled in those red BTS buses appeared as a screenplay in front of my eyes.)

Listening to these stories we sailed through yet another horrifying traffic jam.
Do you have a story to share about 25 paise in your life ?