Viraj Nanda, Co-founder, and CEO of Globalise, a platform that guides Indians to invest globally, is a coinman. He collects coins and is indeed an aficionado.
It all started when Nanda inherited coins of his greatgrandfather. However, he soon fell in love with the rich heritage of the coins and the historic legacy they carried with them. "I tabulated my coins in a notebook, keeping a track of the countries of their origin, the value, their year, etc. The oldest coin I have is from 1874," he says.
Such was the passion that he would ask for coins as gifts when his father travelled across Asia for work. With time, digital records on Excel replaced pen-paper tabulation. A small collection turned into a montage of over 800 coins from 160 nations, in 115 currencies. "My target is to get coins of each currency in circulation globally, possibly in every denomination. I love talking about my coins with my friends and they help me increase my collection by bringing me some when they travel abroad," he says.
Nanda himself makes it a point to visit the flea markets of the nations he visits and return with a pocketful of clinging little metal pieces. "Come to think of it, this childhood hobby and my company are similar in some ways. I have collected coins from across the globe and Globalise helps Indians with global investing. It just fell into place."