1 Rouble: 160th anniversary-birth of Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy was born in Yasyana Polyana, in the Tula district of Russia. The Tolstoys were a rich and influential family being the nobility. The initial part of his marriage was marked by sexual passion and emotional insensitivity as on marriage eve he handed his wife-to-be Sophie a diary which stated his philandering and libertarian ways, including the mention of a serf bearing birth to his son. But this did not hamper his marriage at all, and ostensibly all went smoothly.
War and peace is widely regarded as one the best ever novels, and is definitely Tolstoy's most renowned novel. In the novel he covered more than 800 characters; from a family room to Napoleon Boanaparte, from Tsar Alexander to the battefields of
Borodino. He made his attempt at discovering about the war, and made clear that people like Napoleon and Alexander were insignificant as individuals. Interestingly, he did not consider War and Peace to be a novel, in sync with the zeitgiest of his times. He considered
Anna Karenina to be his first novel. His novels bore profound influence of his own life experiences and many characters in his books were apparently blueprinted on his own character. He had contrastingly adverse reactions on reading Shakespeare: "Several times I read the dramas and the comedies and historical plays, and I invariably underwent the same feelings: repulsion, weariness, and bewilderment. At the present time, before writing this preface, being desirous once more to test myself, I have, as an old man of seventy-five, again read the whole of Shakespeare, including the historical plays, the "Henrys," "Troilus and Cressida," the "Tempest," "Cymbeline," and I have felt, with even greater force, the same feelings,—this time, however, not of bewilderment, but of firm, indubitable conviction that the unquestionable glory of a great genius which Shakespeare enjoys, and which compels writers of our time to imitate him and readers and spectators to discover in him non-existent merits,—thereby distorting their esthetic and ethical understanding,—is a great evil, as is every untruth."
In 1908, he wrote a letter to an Indian newspaper titled "A letter to a Hindu" which led to his correspondence with a young
Mahatma Gandhi, who was then in South Africa, and was deeply infuenced to move unto the path of non-violence. Tolstoy was against the idea of a violent revolution. The two men also shared their ideals of celibacy, self abstinence and vegitarianism. Gandhi acknowledged the debt in his autobiography as: "The greatest apostle of non-violence that the present age has produced." The correspondence, however, lasted only for a year until 1909.
Tolstoy's ideas became more radical in the later part of his life. He started believing he was unworthy and undeserving of the vast wealth that he had inherited, for one. He was known to dispense large sums of money to vagrants, street beggers and needy peasants, much to the chagrin of his wife. He had been mooting the aspect of leaving his inherited wealth for many decades and in the winter of 1910, he decided to leave his fortune and family and start leading an ascetic life even though he had not been keeping well. He suffered from pneumonia and after a few days, collapsed near Apastavo station. His personal doctors were called for but they could do nothing. He passed away at the age of 82.
1 rouble: 175 years-birth of T.H. Shevchenko
Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko is known as the father of modern Ukrainian literature. He also wrote in Russian and created many works as a painter and an illustarator.
He was born in 1814 in the village of Moryntsi in what is now Ukraine. By birth and heritage he was a serf(unfree peasant), orphaned at the age of 11. His painting skills caught the eye of the contemporaries and the Russian painter and professor Karl Bruillov donated a portrait, the proceeds of which were used to buy his freedom.
He started writing poetry when he was still a serf and in 1840, his first collection of poetry, Kobzar was published. Later on he made three trips to Ukraine, then under Russian empire, and he was moved by the poverty and the difficult conditions in which his countrymen lived. He proceeded to create an album titled picturesque Ukraine.
In 1845, he met the Brotherhood of the saints Cyril and Methodius, dedicated to liberation from the imperial rule. There was subsequent suppression of the society and in a search his poem "The Dream" was found. The poem was extremely critical of Tsar Nicholas I and his wife. So he was arrested along with members of the society and his punishment was the severest. He was exiled and put into prison and the Tsar took away his liberty to write or paint. But the Tsar's enforcement was weak and he continued to create new works and masterpieces.It was only in 1859 that he returned from exile.
Shevchenko died in 1861 following his harsh exiles and some illness. He died seven days before the serfs were emanciapted, and his works are revered in Ukrainians and his impact on Ukraine literature is immense.
Obverse: Odin rouble, meaning one rouble beneath CCCP (the russian equivalent of USSR) and the national insignia.
Written at top: char ana meaning four annas
When India became a republic in 1950, the anna series was adopted for coinage purposes. 1 rupee consisted of 16 annas. As you can see clearly in this series, the denomination keeps on decreasing by a factor of two: one rupee, half rupee, quarter rupee(4 annas), two annas, one anna and half anna. All the fractions were consistently minted , with the one anna and two anna coins of 1955 coming under the category of low mintage coins; and are therefore rare and also having very high value. This design of one rupee was minted only in 1950 and1954, and that too only in the Bombay mint. After that one rupee coin came out only in 1962. The anna series was discontinued in 1955 and it was replaced by the naya paisa series in 1957. The designers had experimented with a one rupee coin reading "sau naye paise" meaning 100 new paise in 1960. Only 3 such pieces are known to have been minted and 1 such coin recently sold at an auction for 2.2 lakh rupees.
The reverse shows wheat ears. Wheat is the staple food crop in India. The writing in Hindi reads adhik ann ugao which means grow more food.
On the reverse we can see a woman with a man holding the Indian flag, and in the background there is the Indian parliament. The writing on the right reads 25veen swatantarya jayanti meaning the 25th year of the Indian independence. India got its independence in 1947 and this coin was released in 1972, 25 years after the independence.
Alphonsa Mutthapadathu was born in 1910 in village Kudamaloor near Kottayam in Kerala. She had a difficult childhood plagued by poverty and illness. She fell into a pit of burning chaff and both here feet got deformed, leaving her handicapped. In 1936, she was miraculously cured by saint Therese of Lisieux. She taught at a school and there are a large number of miracles associated with her, many of which involved curing children having clubbed feet as she herself had been disabled by her feet for many years. In 1939 she had an attack of double-pnuemonia which left her weakened and she died in 1946 after a painful illness. In 1985, Pope John Paul II formally approved a miracle that was attributed to her and she received the title of Venerable Sister Alphonsa. One year later, she was beatified. On the 50 years of her death, a stamp was released as the first sign of national recognition to her. Pope Benedict XVI authorized her canonization in 2007 and the process was completed after an year, meaning that Alphonsa is now the first woman and only the second saint from India after Saint Gonsalo Garcia.
This one is definitely one of the rarest coins of recent times. There have been many rare 5 rupee coins in the last couple of years and this one is definitely on top of the wish list of most collectors, and many beginners are not even aware of this one existing. Even I got to know of this only 3-4 months back. The reason: this is a controversial coin that was banned by the government of India following the controversy surrounding coins of 1 rupee and 2 rupee coins with similar symbols on them. As this was banned, it never came into circulation unlike the 2 rupee and the 1 rupee coins. The 1 rupee cross coin was also controversial and was withdrawn from circulation , but at least it did come into circulation. Even the dealers couldn't get hold of more than 1-2 packets of this one. And what they had was sold out in olympic record time. So , now its not even available anywhere and its price has already gone through the roof.
This 5 rupee is a die variety/mule of the first war of independence normal coin. The obverse is that of circulated coin but the reverse is from die of copper-nickel coin. You may call it high relief variety. Also, note the three bags(besides the cannon) in normal coin as against the four bags in the shown mule coin.
Jay Prakash Narayan was also popularly known as JP, and is well known for leading the opposition against Indira Gandhi.
India was under British rule for about 200 years and in the first half of the 20th century, the freedom struggle was greatly influenced by people like Mahatma Gandhi and their ideas and principles of non-violence which struck a chord with the masses as the majority of the population of India is peace loving. On the verge of the second world war, the quit India movement was started in India in 1942; and this coin was released on the occasion of 50 years or golden jubilee of the quit India movement.
Half anna reverse: the coat of arms
This half anna coin was minted in 1835 and is definitely not easy to find. It is a large coin about the size of a half crown or the Nehru 5 rupee. On the reverse we can see the coat of arms of the East India company.
The Seoul mint mark is a star below the first or the last digit of the date. Seoul is the capital of South Korea.
The unity in diversity 10 rupee coin.
