Mangalore: Richard Lobo’s Fascination for Currency Ensures Him Dist’s Largest Collection

Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje
By Sharad Raj

Mangalore, Sep 9: Everyone likes to have a lot of money to enjoy life. But Richard Lobo loves money for a different reason. Hailing from Karkala, he has a hobby of collecting currency from all over the world and has 1,100 currencies from 220 countries.

His love towards currency started when his sister’s son got him a plastic currency from Hong Kong. Now he has 20 plastic currencies.

Entering the flat in Mangalore, where he will be shifting soon, we could see two rooms with currency displays all over the floor and still more filed away in albums which tell stories of the past and present of different nations.

Richard proudly showed three dollar notes from Antarctica! He explained that it was given by the Australian government to those who travel to Antarctica on ships so that they can get cigarettes, wine, and burgers by using that currency. This currency can be changed into dollars in Australia later.

“Indonesia, where 85 percent of people are Muslims, have Lord Ganapati’s photo printed on their currency. This indicates that the Indian Kingdom, when ruled by kings of the past, had extended upto Indonesia and Hindus were the rulers in that era”, he added. The currencies of Brunei, Cambodia, and Somalia also had Hindu temples printed on them and this shows that kings like those of the Shrivijayan Empire ruled these countries in the past.

Mauritian currency has writing in Tamil which shows that the Tamilians were a majority in the nation and settled down there long ago as in Sri Lanka. Some notes from Brazil have pictures printed similarly on both sides. There was a 500 crore dinar of Yugoslavia which is equivalent to Rs 20! Richard also has the Zimbabwe 200 million note.

Some currencies of Venezuela looked like calendars printed vertically. Biafra currency told the history of a place which is no longer on the world map, a nation which was dissolved into an African country during the First World War.

Richard also has an American one million dollar note, which though issued by the US government, has no value. He also has the largest currency collection in the district and he is aiming for the Limca Book of Records.

Richard Lobo can be contacted at 9845 776362 by those interested in selling exotic currency or for staging exhibitions.