Rezwan Razack
Joint M.D. Prestige Group

Introduction

Born in Bangalore, Rezwan Razack, the second son of Razack Sattar grew up in Bangalore where his father handled the family retail business. Rezwan attended the prestigious St. Joseph’s College of Commerce. As a student, he won many laurels both academically and in extracurricular activities. Graduating with a degree in Commerce with a fifth rank in the State, Rezwan entered the family retailing business. Rezwan dabbled in Real Estate trading and diversified into Property Development in Bangalore in 1985.

Highlights

About Me
Better known as the Managing Director of the Prestige Group, one of South India’s leading Property Developers, Rezwan Razack is also India’s Biggest Collector of Indian Banknotes. Rezwan is the paradigm of an unassuming bureaucrat in the business realm. Having over thirty years of business development experience, Rezwan now handles all construction and engineering activities in the Prestige Group. He has built a highly motivated contracting and engineering team, creating an atmosphere for people to effectively execute their assignments.
Social Responsibilities
In addition to being the driving force behind the Group’s success, Rezwan is arduously involved in numerous social causes. A philanthropist by nature, Rezwan had dedicated himself to coordinating the ‘Terry Fox Run’ – a fund raising event in aid for Cancer Research in Bangalore. Rezwan staunchly supports the P.R.A.Y.(Pain Relief And You) Foundation, an organisation providing assistance towards medical requirements of the underprivileged.
My Hobbies
Rezwan is an avid golfer. His easygoing nature and good humour augments easy and spontaneous informal interactions. He is an enthusiastic numismatist and enjoys listening to music, F1 motor sports, cooking, horse riding and has travelled the globe widely. He is a member of various social and sporting clubs in Bangalore.
Activities
Rezwan is very passionate about Indian Paper Money and his collection as a specialist hobby. He possesses one note of every variety of paper money pertaining to India since its inception till date. His collection was built over a period of 40 years, coupled with in-depth research, study and learning on this subject. As a result of this Research on Indian Paper Money, Rezwan co-authored ‘The Revised Standard Reference Guide to Indian Paper Money’. This book was released in January 2012. Currently Rezwan is the Chairman of International Bank Note Society – India Banknote Collectors’ Chapter. Rezwan was awarded the 2010 Achievement Award by the International Bank Note Society for significant contribution to The Advancement of Numismatic Knowledge by his article ‘Banknotes of Portuguese India’. Rezwan also won the Fred Philipson Award for the best article in IBNS Journal 2010.

Kishore Jhunjhuwalla

Introduction

Kishore Jhunjhuwalla was born in Bombay on 13th January 1944 into an Agarwal business family from Rajasthan. His father was a first generation businessman, and Kishore joined him soon after attending his Inter-Science level from the University of Bombay in 1962. He spent his career in the family business of rubber and rubber products upto 1997.

Highlights

About Me
Kishore has been collecting banknotes since 1957. The seeds of his hobby were planted within him when one of his relatives gave him a One Rupee note, dated 1935 and bearing the portrait of King George V by detaching it from its booklet! Unlike many others, his enthusiasm in collecting did not wane as he grew up; it grew everyday over the years. The outcome was the finest collection of Indian banknotes ever put together in the world.
KJ and Numismatic
While collecting, he felt a vacuum of information. There was no single reference work or catalog of Indian paper money which he could utilize to compare his collection. In order that future generations of collectors should not face such deprivation, he decided it was time to turn to the academics of the subject and venture into publishing such a book. The result was his book, ‘The Standard Reference Guide to Indian Paper Money’, published by Currencies and Coins, Kishore’s own publication company. It was released on 22nd April, 2000 in Mumbai’s magnificent Town Hall building – the very one seen in a vignette on the notes of Bank of Bombay. The book was pioneering effort, it took eight long years in preparation,and it turned out to be a benchmark in comprehensiveness.
Colleboration with Rezwan Razack
The book was appreciated world-wide for its in-depth information, presentation, cataloguing arrangement and high quality printing. It received the coveted ‘Best Book of the Year’ award from the International Bank Note Society. In 2005 Mr. Jhunjhunwalla met Mr. Rezwan Razack and found in him the suitable person to carry forward the mantle of collecting as well as researching Indian paper money. The meeting has resulted in the publication of this book.
Publications
  • Indian Paper Money Since 1950 (1997)
  • The Standard Reference Guide to Indian Paper Money (2000)
  • Paper Money of India, by P.L. Gupta (2000, as publisher)
  • Standard Guide to Indian Paper Money – 1947 to 2010 (2011, as co-author)
Mr. Jhunjhunwalla’s other interests include collecting memorabilia of Mahatma Gandhi and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.

Rekha Chandrabhanu

Introduction

Born and educated in Bangalore, Rekha Chandrabhanu completed her schooling at Cluny Convent and then studied B.Sc. She later did a Diploma in Secretarial Practice at The Career College and joined the Prestige Group in 1995. Having worked in Prestige for over 16 years, Rekha is presently the Executive Assistant of Mr. Rezwan Razack, Managing Director of the Prestige Group.

Highlights

About Me
Rekha Chandrabhanu not only took care of all admin. related activities at Mr. Rezwan Razack’s office, but also got intensely involved with his hobby of collecting Indian Paper Money. Rekha developed a keen interest in his collection, which has motivated her to dedicatedly and sincerely be a sole part in cataloguing, scanning and organising the collection. Rekha is the curator of Mr. Razack’s collection and is the custodian of this collection which has become part of her life. The comprehensive knowledge that Rekha developed over the years on this subject has made her one of the best in this field. Rekha also actively participated in compiling information and assisting in the completion of Mr. Rezwan Razack’s book ‘The Revised Standard Reference Guide to Indian Paper Money’. Rekha is a member of the IBNS-IBCC and the Blog Editor for Mr. Razack’s blog indianbanknote.blogspot.com. Rekha is also interested in cooking, reading, yoga

Murali Thantry

Introduction

A native of Moodabidri, in Dakshina Kannada District, Murali Thantry was born in Bangalore, completed his Bachelor’s of Commerce from Bangalore University.

Murali is currently employed with IBM India Pvt. Ltd., as a Project Manager.

Murali Thantry’s hobbies started with collecting stamps at the age of 10 and over the years built a diverse collection of global coins and banknotes. He finally concentrated on collecting Indian banknotes and coins with prime focus on British India banknotes – a prefix-wise compilation and coins from 1835 to 1947. Murali’s Republic India banknote collection mainly consists of notes with exquisite numbers such as 111111, 333333, 555555, etc.

Born and educated in Bangalore, Rekha Chandrabhanu completed her schooling at Cluny Convent and then studied B.Sc. She later did a Diploma in Secretarial Practice at The Career College and joined the Prestige Group in 1995. Having worked in Prestige for over 16 years, Rekha is presently the Executive Assistant of Mr. Rezwan Razack, Managing Director of the Prestige Group.

Highlights

About Me
Murali Thantry’s fascination of collecting Indian banknotes started when his maternal uncle gave him Rs. 1000/- to be deposited in the Bank. Murali now has a substantially good collection of British India Banknotes, Coins & Republic India banknotes. Murali Thantry has participated in many exhibitions conducted by Karnataka Numismatic Society (KNS) and won many prizes in almost all the events he participated in. Murali was the Vice-president for Karnataka Numismatic Society for 4 years and a committee member for 8 years. During these tenure KNS grew phenomenally in terms of revenues and memberships. Murali also regularly delivers lectures on numismatics in the Society’s meetings and also actively participates in conducting exhibitions. Murali Thantry has also been very active in social networking sites sharing his knowledge with novice and experiences collectors alike and grooming lots of budding young collectors. Over the years Murali has had great opportunities to interact with renowned collectors like Mr. Rezwan Razack, Mr. Kishore Jhunjhunwala, Mr. Basant Rathi, Mr. Paul Stevens, Mr. Gev Kias, Mr. Mrinal Jain and many such scholars and veterans in the hobby. Murali’s journey has been very satisfying and an excellent learning experience and has been his stress buster over the years. Murali attributes his good health firstly to his family and secondly to his dear hobby of Numismatics. Murali attributes his good health firstly to his family and secondly to his dear hobby of Numismatics. Murali is married to Saraswathi, a homemaker. His son Karthik is pursuing his engineering Degree, and his daughter Kruthi is doing her Pre-University Course.

Percy Phiroze Siganporia

Introduction

Born and brought up in Bombay (now Mumbai), is the youngest son of Phiroze and Soonoo. Having completed his Bachelor of Science and Computer Management Studies from Bombay University, took up Computer field and served HSBC Bank for more than 2 decades , as Vice President, IT Development.

When he was nine his grand-father gifted him a box full of old stamps. His serious collection of stamps started only in 1990 when he bought an incomplete collection of King George VI of the British Commonwealth and slowly progressed to almost near completion and had one of the biggest collection of Br. Commonwealth KG VI in Bombay.

Highlights

About Me
Percy started his banknotes hobby by chance, when he happened to pick up a Paper Money Catalogue book of Mr. Manik Jain in early 2000 in one exhibition. He was surprised at the number of Signature varieties and prefixes each denomination had. Since childhood, his favorite number has always been “10”, being a perfect number and in his studies too, he used to excel with 10 out of 10. So he chose ‘10 Rupees’ as his main subject of collection and started Post-Independence prefix-wise. Sometime in mid-2001, he met Mr. Kishore Jhunjhunwalla in an exhibition and upon receiving his autographed book of IPM, became more involved in this hobby. Mr. Jhunjhunwalla has since been his guide and encouraged him to go even further and excel in this hobby. While referring the World Paper Money Volumes, Percy realized that 10 Rupees were issued by more than 15 countries , including India and soon embarked upon buying every 10 Rupees which came his way, that too prefix-wise. He now has one of the biggest collections of ‘10 Rupees’ of the world. 2007 , Percy met Mr. Rezwan Razack who has since been his main source of inspiration and knowledge on the banknotes of India. Percy was also instrumental in the preparation of the Revised Standard Reference Guide to IPM and shared valuable information with the authors. Percy enjoys traveling to various places in India and abroad. His other interests includes sketching and listening to old movie songs. Currently Percy is the Membership Secretary of IBNS – India Banknote Collectors’ Chapter, IBNS & Life Member of Mumbai Coin Society. Percy is also doing research on the 10 Rupees Unifaces of British India and constantly seeks information on its Dates, Signatories, Prefixes and Issue Circles.