1730 AD Dutch East India coins in Netherlands!

By h e m a n t h - August 24, 2010

It feels as if it’s been a million years since I blogged. What’s the reason for me to blog again, after 3 long years? Because this day seemed to be a revamp of my coin-collection hobby as a kid!
     

Though my plan was to buy something else in the market, I inadvertently ran into an old coins shop at Rotterdam (Netherlands). I’ve always loved unearthing an old artifact - painting it in color - trying to bring it into real - and running it vividly in my multi-dimensional exotic mind of imaginative, simulated environment (yeah, it’s a sentence full of metaphors). As I was peeking at the window of this shop- the antique coins yanked me into the shop. I knew definitely that nothing would be affordable inside, but still the pull force was heavy and I yielded to it. I enquired if they have any Dutch East India Company (VOC) coins. (For people for whom Dutch East Indies doesn’t paint a colorful picture on your mind once you hear it, and for the people who think- WTH is that, click over the link). I was brought 5 beautiful teeny VOC coins each minted in circa 1730. I was beaming (automatically). I enquired the price (just for formality, and to cover up the blatant fact that I was just window-shopping). He said it was €350 each. It was expected. But I just enquired if there was any VOC artifact that is of a later period, with a lesser price tag. But there was nothing. I just tried confirming the price again- then I got to understand that it was actually €3 and 50 cents each!!! I was filled with shock and ecstasy. It’s the feeling one may get when he sees his love-proposal get a positive nod, back from his girl! Filled with joy, I picked ‘em all with my two hands and said “You are mine!”. Bought them, and came back home. 


            Well, how did I happen to get them for so less, though being real ones? Is it because I bought them in Netherlands? Or is that because MY OWN legacy is coming back to me?! (Well, enough of imagination, Mr. Hemanth van Tutecorijn!) But of course, this is an awesome start to my research on Dutch East Indies’ occupation in Tuticorin (my birth place) from 1658 to 1825!

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4 Comments

  1. Ranjith ThiruAugust 25, 2010 at 12:45 AM

    After reading this, It seems that I have traveled virtually to Rotterdam and I was behind you while you were at that Antique Shop.

    ReplyDelete
  2. h e m a n t hAugust 25, 2010 at 3:12 AM

    haha, thanks. I tried to be vivid in the writing, but it's also because you like this stuff too. If not, you wouldnt feel all in this 'in color' in your mind- wud just be dreary and dull. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. CosmosAugust 26, 2010 at 10:16 PM

    Once again on blogging! Good. Express as you feel, then and there, like this.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousFebruary 22, 2011 at 10:20 AM

    I have been doing research on 'Colonial' Tuticorin as well. Would be really nice to join hands in a project to bring out our old history - weill, I am from Tuticorin too. If interested, write to me at josepremATgmail.com

    ReplyDelete

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