BANGALORE — Few people knew that the 25 paise and 50 paise coins fetched more money than their face value until the police intercepted a car containing several gunny bags filled with the coins at Bajpe near Mangalore in Karnataka.
A search of the car, which was heading to Bangalore, revealed gunny bags containing 25 paise and 50 paise coins, totalling Rs59,095. Fifty-two-year-old Prabhakar, who was transporting the coins, confessed that he was taking the coins to his contact Ritesh in Bangalore, who would melt them into nickel and sell.
Prabhakar told the police that he had taken the coins from a bank in Mangalore. Apparently, the coins, when melted into nickel and sold in the market, would fetch more money than the real value of the coins, police said. Small wonder that low denomination coins in country are fast disappearing, the police added.
The police seized the car containing the coins and arrested Prabhakar. The police have launched a hunt to locate Prabhakar's contact Ritesh in Bangalore.