Rezwan Razack
A true titan in the real estate industry, Rezwan Razack is the Co-founder of the Prestige Group and Managing Director of Prestige Estates Projects Ltd., India’s leading property developer. His indubitable business acumen, vision and guidance have been instrumental in the company’s growth for over the last forty years. The museum is the glorious testament of his passion for collecting historic paper money. Compiled over the course of 50 years, his collection is unrivalled and most comprehensive in the world today, both in scope and significance.
Inspired by his in-depth research of the history of Indian paper money, he co-authored and released ‘The Revised Standard Reference Guide to Indian Paper Money’ in 2012. The book, hailed as ‘the Bible for Indian Paper Money’, is an encyclopaedic coverage of information and trivia related to the topic. In 2017, Rezwan authored a second book, ‘One Rupee – One Hundred Years 1917-2017’, to mark the 100th Anniversary of the issue of the One Rupee note in India. In 2010, the IBNS honoured him for his significant contribution to The Advancement of Numismatic Knowledge for his article ‘Banknotes of Portuguese India’ and in 2020 for the article ‘Portrait Notes of Queen Victoria’. Rezwan also won the ‘Fred Philipson Award’ twice and a honorable mention from the IBNS Journal.
Rezwan Razack is currently serving as the Chairman of the International Bank Note Society – IBNS – India Banknote Collectors’ Chapter. Rezwan shares his knowledge with students to promote numismatics as a hobby. He writes regularly on Indian Paper Money for numismatic publications in India and abroad.
Bazil Shaikh
Bringing in a wealth of experience in the monetary realm, Bazil Shaikh is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to his insider knowledge about money and related topics. Being a career central banker for over 30 years, he has served in various distinguished capacities including Secretary to the Board of the Reserve Bank of India. He is a veritable jack of all trade with expertise in trade, exchange rate and reserve management, rural development, human resource management as well as governance and more.
Bazil Shaikh was one of the key players in the establishment of the Reserve Bank Monetary Museum at Mumbai, playing an instrumental role in conceptualization, research and curation process. He has a Doctorate in Economics from the Gokhale Institute of Economics and Politics and was a mid-career fellow in Public Policy at the Princeton University. He was appointed to several high profile committees of Government of India and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) and was associated with projects funded by the Asian Development Bank. Bazil Shaikh has also written for several websites and publications, notably, the Paper and the Promise, Mint Road Milestones: RBI at 75, and The Conjuror’s Trick: An Interpretative History of Paper Money in India.
Murali Thantry
An avid stamp collector since the age of 10, Murali Thantry’s passion has led him to amassing a gargantuan and diverse collection of global coins and banknotes. After 37 years of dedicated service in the IT industry, he retired from IBM after serving the organization for nearly 11 Years, to invest more time in his favourite hobby. Murali Thantry’s fascination of collecting Indian banknotes started when his maternal uncle gave him Rs.1000/- to be deposited in the Bank. His banknote collection has a peculiar distinction of consisting exquisite odd Solid Fancy serial numbers such as 111111, 333333, 555555, etc. He also dedicates his time and energy into in-depth research on Indian banknotes, studying their origin, evolution and progress right from the time it was printed on the handmade paper to current day fully automated process. He has contributed considerably in compilation of facts about Indian Paper Money which are published in the form of catalogues authored by highly qualified experts in the field of Indian paper money collection.
On the strength of his knowledge on the subject and his impressive collection, Murali Thantry has participated and won multiple prizes in many exhibitions conducted by Karnataka Numismatic Society (KNS). He also served as the Vice-president for Karnataka Numismatic Society for 4 years and a committee member for 8 years. During his tenures, KNS grew phenomenally in terms of revenues and memberships. Murali also regularly delivers lectures on numismatics in the Society’s meetings to inspire aspiring numismatic enthusiasts.
Sanjay Mittal
Hailing from the steel city of India – Bilai, Sanjay Mittal displayed a spark of excellence right from his academic years. Being the eldest son of Kailash and Meera Mittal, he scored the 1st rank in state board exams and 2nd rank in the state for Bachelor in Commerce.
One of the most profoundly influential events in his life was when he discovered a box full of coins under his study table during his school days. Dubbed as a gift from his maternal grandfather by his mother, she also said “I am giving you 32 coins; let me see how many you add to it”. These words ignited his passion of collecting coins. So far, he has primarily collected British India coins according to mints and year of issue and Republic India Banknotes according to types and subtypes.
Impressed by his penchant for coin collecting, Rezwan Rezack enlisted Sanjay Mittal to contribute to his book ‘The Revised Standard Reference Guide to Indian Paper Money’. While working on the book, Sanjay Mittal was awestruck by what he learned about the history of Indian banknotes. The exhilarating experience of researching on the history of Indian paper money and working on the book with Rezwan Rezack and Murali Thantry exponentially expanded his knowledge in numismatics. This assignment also influenced him to start his own collection of banknotes.
Currently, Sanjay Mittal serves as a member of Karnataka Numismatic Society (KNS) and IBNS-IBCC while working as a digital media strategist in Bangalore.
Eugene Emmanuel Karthak
Eugene Emmanuel Karthak, former Executive Director of Reserve Bank of India, Mumbai associated with our team after holding prominent leadership positions with RBI, Ministry of Welfare – Government of India and Central Bureau of Investigation.
An alumnus of St. Stephens College Delhi and post-graduate in Political Science from Jawaharlal Nehru University Delhi, Eugene also attended the Stanford University and University of Maryland, Washington DC for Advanced Management Programs.
Eugene held responsibilities in various departments at the RBI commencing 1985 onwards in diverse capacities at their offices in Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Gangtok and Bengaluru. During 2010-2013, he was the Officer-in-Charge entrusted with setting up the Bank’s office in Gangtok. As of 2013-15, Eugene was appointed the Chief General Manager of the Kolkata Regional Office. He was the Regional Director at Bangalore through 2015-18 and at New Delhi in 2018-19. Later In 2019, he was the Executive Director at RBI Mumbai and in charge of five strategic departments namely Information Technology, Premises, Corporate Services, Central Security Cell and Rajbhasha Dept. He was chosen to be the Alternate Appellate Authority under Right to Information Act. Eugene also served as RBI Nominee Director on the Board of Andhra Bank from 2014-2019.
He functioned with the Ministry of Welfare – Government of India from 1991-93 and with the Central Bureau of Investigation during 2000-2008.