Mumbai: Lost coins of 84 countries a surprise hit at BEST museum

Coins from various countries on display at the BEST Museum at Anik depot in Sion. Pics/Atul Kamble

BEST's lost-and-found treasure has now become a central attraction at the undertaking's museum at Anik depot in Sion. Coins from 84 countries and currency notes from 60 nations that remained unclaimed over the last decade are attracting crowds.

Yatin S Pimpale, museum curator, said, "We have put all the coins on proper display country-wise in small decorative gift trays. The currency notes have been put up on display boards. These have been the main attraction for one and all who visit the museum, especially school kids. There are coins from Tanzania, Turkey, Venezuela, Yemen, Sweden, Romania, Qatar. You name a country and we have its coins."

Currency notes from various countries on display at the BEST Museum at Anik depot in Sion

"Interestingly, these are from the lost property section, Wadala, a centralised place where all things forgotten and lost in BEST buses and on BEST premises are collected," he added. "We invited coin and currency expert Sanjay Joshi from Mahim before putting them on display. We learnt that among all the coins, there are a few rare ones, which we have displayed separately with highlights," he said.

The currency and coin section has become one of the central attractions of the museum, which displays a comprehensive history of the BEST transport and electricity undertaking.

The coin and note exhibit is a central attraction. Pics/Atul Kamble

Pimpale said his assistant Ambadas Garje and another official, Sandip Shete, helped with the display. "We have put them on display in decorative trays (used for gifting chocolates). Both took great efforts to exhibit this currency during an exhibition event held a few months ago," he explained.

The museum, set up around 1983, houses significant relics of Mumbai's transport and electrification history such as the earliest power meters, old bus tickets, ticket-dispensing machines, working models of miniature trams and buses, a host of archival photographs and also a clay and plastic storyboard depicted how Bombay once thought of running underground local trains.

It was originally located at the Kurla bus depot but as that site began to face space crunch, it was shifted to Anik in the nineties where it has remained since.