Asma Mirza
Time was changing when I opened my eyes to this world; everything seemed to be going ‘online’. But still it was not that bad – we still were living our offline lives too. It was time when stamp collection, reading books in their ‘hard copy format’, gaming (offline) with hands and feet involved, making scrap books, collecting dolls, coin collection were few of the more common hobbies instead of chatting, surfing online and downloading music.
I inherited not the coin collection hobby but the coins themselves from my sis (and probably my parents too since she cannot collect coins issued years before her).
I remember years back when someone would come from any foreign land me and my siblings’ would surely ask for some coin tokens to add up in our collection. And it used to be great time of pleasure for me to open up my sis’ stamp and coin collections whenever she was away, as a feast.
To date, State Bank of Pakistan has issued numerous (and many uncountable too) coins of different denominations; from Takka to Paisa, 5 paisa’s to 50 paisas’s and then quarter rupee to 5 rupee coin. Since, I’ve a 100 Rupee coin too; so I guess, as commemoration, larger denominations in fewer amounts were issued too. Interestingly, whether 25 paisas or 50 paisas, the term Paisa was more popular, but I came across a 10 Pice too issued in 1961. I guess people were more comfortable with paisa than pice! Quarter rupee or ‘aadh pao’ was an interesting term too :)
English, Urdu, Bangla and Arabic are some of the main languages inscribed on these coins from time to time. With language, size and shapes also saw no restrictions but the rounder coins remained the most popular with issuing authorities. 
In the 1970’s and 1980’s the one rupee coin was of much better size than today’s 5 rupee coin and the value matters too (Ouch at Rupee devaluation).
Coins were used as phone tokens too back in time till early 80’s – now the calling cards rocks. While I was looking for coins online, I found an interesting site showing off real ancient coins such as this billon, issued in 1200’s by a Sindh ruler, with a horse embarked on it and even a coin from Akbar’s time too.
The oldest coin, I have, is from early times of Pakistan i.e., 1948. Other notable coins are the ones issued to commemorate 100th birth celebrations of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah in 1976 and Allam Iqbal in 1977, Islamic Summit conference 74, Beginning of Al-Hijrah in 1401 and even one coin with the slogan that “Pedawar Barhao” jo aaj tak na barhii!
For some reasons, amongst most Pakistanis, metallic and plastic money is still not popular; it’s more of a burden than ease.
I wonder if, over time, our coins would come cherished as collectable items some time. After all, in countries like USA, UK, Canada, rare coins such as 50p coins, stamps and even game tickets are sold for hundreds of dollars, and more!
Asma Mirza blogs at FunInLife and also at Metroblog Islamabad.
i just wanted to ask some questions about coin albums. i m a teenage coin collector. i have been collecting coins since 5 months. and because my uncle and cousin were also coin collectors so they give me their collections and now my collection and uncle’s and cousin’s collector are about of 37 countries collection so i found coin albums for them which is very very rare item in pakistan. but now the problem is that when i started arranging the coin album first the pakistani coins then indian coins so i arranged them in descending order when i finished the whole coin album with diferent countries coins i got new coin of pakistan, india, iran, jordan. now my whole decending years order has gone in lost. if i want to contuine the decending order then i have to arrange the whole album again and definately i will find more coins then again i have to rearrange the whole ablum. so i am new coin collector plz help me by telling me how to arrange my coin ablum so i don’t have to rearrange it again and again. and could u tell me that is it ture that if u polish the coins to make them look shinning their price will decrease? because i have some coins that are very dirty and unclear so i wanted to clean them if it’s false then plz tell me so i can keep them as the way they are. if u have a website that can give me information then plz mail me at my email adderss. panzzzer_111@yahoo.com
i have many coins form many countries and pakistani and indian coin also. i am 56 years old. professor in sindh university jamshoro. i needed to know that is there any law in pakistan to send exchange coins to diferent countries because when i went to pakistan post and TCS they said that there is no permission to send coins outside the counties not even india. so if any pakistani want to exchange coins with me male and female both please inform me at Dr_basir_arain@hotmail.com and do tell me how to send coins to other countries if u know. thanks.
Sure Petre Moraru if you can send an image link here .. would be easier to decipher.
And if anyone else can help with Hijri to AD years conversion??
I have the coin of 25 Paisas one face of which is shown in the first photo of your page, second coin with arabic writings. But I do not know the year of mint, as it is marked in arabic numbers 1401 or maybe 1301 and the value of 25 in arabic as well. Should I add 580 years to 1401 and get 1981 or 621 years to 1301 and get 1922? I saw pictures or simmilar coins but the numbers where european and the years 70’s 80’s. I could e-mail the picture of the coin, were you willing to take a look.
Hello all, i have a collection of old coins, they vary from Shillings to old Indian Rupees as 1910.
any one interested in buying it,,,do contact on my email.