COMMEMORATIVE
AND CURRENCY COINS ON INDIAN RAILWAYS
The Minister of Railways,
Shri Nitish Kumar and the Minister of Finance, Shri Jaswant Singh,
released jointly commemorative and currency coins to mark the
completion of 150 glorious years of Indian Railways at a function
here today. The issue of coins in the denomination of Rupees One
Hundred and Rupees Two follows a notification issued by the Ministry
of Finance on August 11, 2003 under the Coinage Act, 1906.
The One Hundred
Rupees coin in its obverse bears the Lion Capitol of Ashok Pillar
with the Legend ‘Satyamev Jayate’ inscribed below flat
on the left upper periphery with the word ‘Prabhat’ in Hindi and
on the right upper periphery, flanked with the word ‘INDIA’ in
English. It also bears the denominational value ‘100’ in international
numerals below the Lion Capitol flanked on the left lower periphery
with the word ‘Rupaye’ in Hindi and right lower periphery
RUPEE in English. The reverse side of the coin bears the portrait
of ‘BHOLU , THE GUARD’, the mascot of Indian Railways, flanked
on the left periphery with the words "150 GLORIOUS YEARS’
in English, on the right periphery with the word "150 Gauravpurna
Varsh" in Hindi, on the top the word "RAILWAYS’
in English and "Railway" in Hindi and on the
lower periphery "BHOLU,
THE GUARD" in English. The figure "2003" is
shown below the word "Bholu, the Guard" in international
numerals.
The inscription
on the Two Rupee coin on both the sides is the same as in the
Hundred Rupee coin. The weight of One Hundred Rupee coin is 35
grams and that of Two Rupees is six grams.
The Hundred Rupees
coin will be commemorative and the Two Rupees coin currency coin.
The journey of
150 years of Indian Railways from April 16, 1853 to April 16,
2003 is a journey from the days of Lord Dalhousie to the Prime
Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It is also a saga of the
all round progress made by the nation in all walks of life. Indian
Railways have been prime mover of bulk transportation of people
and goods. The progress of Indian Railways is the progress of
the Nation.
Both the coins have
been minted at India Government Mint, Kolkata. Members of the
public, coin collectors and other organizations desirous to order
proof sets for keeping these coins as souvenirs are required to
approach the India Government Mint, Kolkata directly from January,
2004 onwards. The Mint will accept such orders through their website
www.igmint.org on payment. The same information
will be put on Indian Railways website www.indianrail.gov.in
in January 2004 as per the advice of the General Manager, India
Government Mint.
Earlier in 2002,
a commemorative postal stamp was issued to mark the completion
of 150 years of Indian Railways.
