Jalandhar, May 27 : An enthusiastic amateur numismatist in Jalandhar claims to have a collection of about 650 coins, including those dating back to Mughal Era.

Malkit Singh acquired this passion after he seeing his parents worshipping coins during Diwali. He has been collecting these coins for 18 years now.

His kitty contains coins from diverse regions and eras. About 30 percent of the collection is foreign currency.

"I have coins from the times dating back to era of Babur (the founder of Mughal dynasty, 1526 AD), apart from good collection of foreign currencies. Besides, I have a lot of Indian coins from various eras as well. My collection would be of minimum 650 coins," Singh added.

Singh's fetish for coin collection has been rising. It compels him to travel far and wide to embellish his collection with new varieties. In one instance, Singh traveled to Nepal to collect a rare coin.

However, his prolific pursuit had attracted the resentment of his family initially, but now they are proud of his pursuit.

"After marriage, I sat in a ritual during Diwali, I saw varied varieties of coins with him. They were pretty old. But then his passion further intensified. And as per woman's nature of saving money, I resented it many times. But later I had to cooperate with him, considering his interest," said Inderjit Kaur, Singh's wife.

Singh claims to have coins from Pakistan Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, USA, Australia, Italy, Germany, France, Arab countries and India. (ANI)