Family pursues passion of coin collection

A penchant for doing something different has made a family of three to take up the hobby of collecting coins.

Meet Suraj J Sunita, his wife Rose Anita Sunita and daughter Neha Benita, all residents of the city who have a vast collection of 1,850 coins of most  countries of the world. Anita started coin collection as a hobby with 100 to 200 coins. It has been continued by her husband Suraj and daughter Neha.

Suraj told DH, “I seriously started collecting coins as a hobby and passion from 2011. I studied numismatics and started arranging the coins accordingly. I collect coins through dealers.”

The coin collections in their 10 albums feature animals, ships, vegetation, fruits and trees. Most of the coins collected are in circulation and a few are commemorative ones.

Their collection comprises 39 coins of US Presidential Dollars. The last US Presidential Dollar was issued by Ronald Reagan on August 2016. The other Presidential Dollars included in their collection are that of George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James K Polk, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S Grant, Rutherford B Hayes, James A Garfield, Chester A Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D Roosevelt, Harry S Truman, Dwight D Eisenhower, John F Kennedy, Lyndon B Johnson, Lyndon B Johnson and Gerald Ford. The coins from Australia, Poland and Denmark are mostly related to animals, ships and vegetation.

Suraj said, “The coins from Cook Island have a beautiful series including that of a triangular coin. The 50 Yen of Japan has a hole in the centre of the coin. Tongo country has brought out a rectangular coin. The British Virgin Island has issued a commemorative coin to mark the collapse of Twin Towers in the US. The 1 Kina coin of Papua New Guinean also has a hole in the centre.”

The collection also comprises Euros of all the 23 countries. A five dollar coin of Australia is similar to that of a medal in size. “Stamp collection is an expensive and time-consuming hobby.  Coins can be historical sources of a particular civilisation which we can pass on to the next generation,” Suraj added.

“Moreover, one comes to know about the countries that we have not heard of so far. In addition, it helps in gaining knowledge about the country,” Anita said.

Neha said her father has not exhibited the coins and added that she has exhibited a few coins during the flower show at Kadri Park in Mangaluru last year.

The family now plans to collect coins from countries like Aruba, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belize, Republic of Botswana, Brunei, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Cocos (Keeling) Island, Digibouti, Falkland Island, Garbonaise, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Kiribati, Lundy, Nagorno-Karabakh, Nicaragua, Piticairn Islands, Samoa, Sierra Leone,  Swaziland and others.