MASTER OF COINS
NUMISMATICS IS AN UPCOMING FIELD FOR RESEARCH IN INDIAN HISTORY AND THERE IS HUGE BURGEONING MARKET IN TRADING OF INDIAN COINS BOTH NATIONALLY AND INTERNATIONALLY
All those who collect coins know it quite well that the hobby is good, but most of the time parenst or friends do not approve as they think its a waste of time and money. Well, now we are having a formal course for numismatics which can help you to study coin history and also can be used as a stepping stone to make a career in numismatics.
The University of Mumbai conducts the MA (Numismatics & Archaeology) programme through the Dinesh Mody Institute of Numismatics & Archaeology (DMINA) with three batches of numismatists out in the field. The two-year program is conducted on the premises of the institute along with the Dinesh Mody Numismatic Museum, which was established by Dinesh Mody, a senior Mumbai based advocate and eminent numismatist with large collections of Indian and world coins.
“Numismatics is an upcoming field for research in Indian history and there is huge burgeoning market in trading of Indian coins both nationally and internationally. Thus, the students can expect to be absorbed by the increasing number of auction houses for coins as resource persons and by the numerous museums both in India and abroad that require expert numismatists to catalogue their collections of Indian coins. Additionally, students can pursue their doctorates in the field to churn out original research content in this yet unexplored system of historiography,” says Mahesh Kalra, Assistant Director and Curator, DMINA.
The syllabus of the course ambitiously covers the entire gamut of Indian coinage right from the ancient Punchmarked coins of the pre-Buddhist era (8th-6th century BC) to coins of various Indian dynasties like Guptas, Kushans, Satavahanas, Cholas, Pandyas, Vijayanagara empire, the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughals and the British till the latest coins minted by the Republic of India covering the history of a period of 2500 years! In addition, the students are encouraged to learn numerous scripts ranging from the oldest Indian scripts, Ashokan Brahmi and Kharosthi to Nagari (the precursor of Devanagari) to Greek, Arabic and Persian as Indian coins are inscribed in these indigenous and foreign scripts. Lastly, the students are instructed about the basics of Archaeology, its methodology and various findings to give them an idea of how the various coin hoards are discovered during archaeological excavations conducted throughout the country.
The in-house museum and the institute, spread over a sprawling 15,000 sq. ft. area, are located at the Saroj Sadan in the heart of the Kalina campus of University of Mumbai.
The course also opens avenues for a host of foreign scholarships at foreign institutions with collections of Indian coins such as the British Museum, Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge University), Ashmolean Museum (Oxford University), among others.
I would say that the world is slowly but surely waking up to the juggernaut of numismatics. Anyone can close their eyes and say that only you can be stupid enough to buy 2 rs in 2000rs, but the potential of collection, investment or research in this field is enormous, and nobody can manage to stay in the dark if the sun is shining brightly.
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