The Telegraph - Indian Newspapers in English Language from Kolkatta (Calcutta) India.

The Telegraph - Indian Newspapers in English Language from Kolkatta (Calcutta) India.

Goddess of small change
- 100kg of coins in retired alms-seeker’s shanty

Calcutta, July 7: Lakshmi started begging from the age of 16 but it wasn’t for nothing that her parents had named her after the goddess of wealth. Over 100kg of coins stored in four iron buckets have been found in her one-room shanty.

At 60, Lakshmi Das is worth anywhere between Rs 20,000 and Rs 30,000.

Shantanu Neogi and J.P. Singh, two employees of the Central Bank of India’s Manicktala branch, expect that it will take them three days or more to count the woman’s life’s savings.

Partho Mondal, a constable at Burtolla police station, watches the counting, which started today, in the branch manager’s cabin. Lakshmi, physically challenged, looks hawk-eyed from her chair, springing to pick up a coin when it falls.

“I used to beg at the Hatibagan crossing and would keep the coins in buckets. I thought these coins would buy me food and clothes when I became too old to beg,” she said.

From a one-paisa coin going back to 1961 to the more recent Rs 5 coin, the buckets contain denominations of all kinds.

“It is taking a lot of time. There are several coins which have become obsolete over the years but we have to accept them as directed by the Reserve Bank of India,” said Singh.

Neogi, who guessed that it would take two more days or maybe more to go through the three other buckets, put the value at Rs 25,000-30,000. It cannot be less than Rs 20,000 even on the rough assumption that each is a Re 1 coin, whose latest version weighs 4.85 gm.

Lakshmi was dipping into her savings to meet her daily expenses as she had retired from begging until one day a few weeks ago a teenaged boy chanced upon her treasure that she had covered with jute bags while playing.

Four days back, some local youths entered her shanty at Nandanbagan looking for the coins. She raised an alarm and her neighbours informed Burtolla police station.

The police visited the shanty where Lakshmi lives alone and took away the buckets. When she did not hear from them for a couple of days she thought her money was gone.

The cops were wondering what to do with her and her buckets.

“Our officers were stunned to see such a huge quantity. Realising that Laskhmi stays alone and these coins would be stolen, the officers brought them to the police station,” said Baidyanath Saha, the officer-in-charge of Burtolla police station.

Banks would usually not accept currency that has ceased to be legal tender, though there is a Reserve Bank directive to do so. Saha said the police narrated Lakshmi’s story to the Central Bank manager who was so touched that he agreed to open a savings account for her.

But before that the coins have to be counted.

“This is the first time we have a customer who has come with such a huge number of coins to open a bank account. She is poor and we want to help her,” said Neogi.

All that Lakshmi has for family is a sister, Asha, who lives nearby. “She is very possessive about her coins and never allowed me to touch them,” Asha said.

Lakshmi doesn’t remember her parents or when she lost them. Nor may she be aware that in her own way she has lived up to the name they gave her.