ABOUT NSI :- Numismatic Society of India was founded on 28th December 1910 at Allahabad by a group of six persons. They were Rev. G.P. Taylor, Sir Richard Burn, H.R. Nevil, H.N. Wright, R.B. Whitehead and Framji Thanawala. They formed a managing committee by electing Sir John Stanley, Hon'ble Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court, as its first President. R.B. Whitehead took up as the first Honorary Secretary and Treasurer of the Society. It was registered as a non-profit organization under the Societies Act xxi of 1860 of the U.P. Govt. Annual Membership fee was fixed Rs.5/- (Rupees five only). The Society was intended as a coordinating body to promote the knowledge and regulate the study of Indian Numismatics.

HISTORY :-  With the discovery of some Roman coins in 1790 begins the history of Indian Numismatics. This discovery is mentioned in the second volume of the Asiatic Researches. It started as a subject of study and research in 1824 when Col. Todd published some Greek, Parthian and Indian coins in the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society. Since then a member of scholars and coin-collectors brought into light a large number of coins and published papers on their finds and results of researches in journals like Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal and Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. In 1904, Mr. H. Nelson, I.C.S. was one of the Secretaries of the Asiatic Society of Bengal and this Society decided to publish a Supplement of its Journal containing papers related to numismatics to organize numismatic studies. The study so far was based on haphazard manner. Co-ordination between individuals and other bodies was felt essential. In view of this it was thought of organizing a conference.

     A coin - conference was orgainsed at the residence of either R. Burn or H. Nelson Wright at Allahabad on 28th December 1910. R. Burn I.C.S. (Allahabad), H. Nelson Wright I.C.S. (Allahabad), H. R. Nevill, I.C.S.(Ghazipur), R.B. Whitehead (Dalhausie, Punjab), - Rev. G.P. Taylor (Ahmedabad), and an Indian coin-Collector Framji Jamasji Thanawala (Bombay) were present at this conference. They resolved A Society- Numismatic Society of India be constituted to encourage the study of the Indian numismatics. The annual membership was rupees five. A committee of the Society of five members including President and Secretary was formed. Mr. R. Burn, Rev. G.P. Taylor and Mr. H. Nelson Wright were nominated members of the first committee and Mr. R.B. Whitehead became Secretary and Treasurer. In December 1911, 46 members were enrolled at the time of the first Annual meeting

    Thereafter the membership gradually increased. At present the Society has enrolled 2000 Life Members, 300Annual Members and 150 Institutional Members. Sir John Stanley, Chief Justice of High Court of North-West Province at Allahabad was invited to become the first President of the first Conference of the Society but due to some reasons he left India permanently. Rev. G.P. Taylor presided the first Annual meeting since then President is elected every year. In the Annual meeting of 1911, Sir John Stanley was elected Honorary Life President which he held it till his death in 1932. Sir Richard Burn was Honorary Life President from 1932 to 1939. After his death this post was abolished. President was originally the administrative head of the Society and he also presided over the Annual conferences. In the Annual meeting of 1947, the Presidentship became post of honour and a new post of Chairman was created for the routine administration. Dr. A.S. Altekar was made first Chairman. In 1944 a new office of Vice-President was created and Rai Bahadur Prayag Dayal was the first Vice-President. R.B. Whitehead was the first Secretary.

The designation of Secretary was changed as General Secretary in 1935 and Prayag Dayal was appointed on this post. In 1921 the post of Assistant Secretary was created. The office of the Treasurer was created in 1958 and Dr. Rai Govinda Chandra was appointed on the same. In the beginning the residence or the personal office of the Secretary was used as the office of the Society. In 1923 State Museum, Lucknow became the office of the Society. In 1933-34 the office shifted to Mumbai at the Prince of Wales Museum. In 1957 the office of the Society shifted to Varanasi in the building of the college of Indology (Now Department of Ancient Indian History & Archaeology, Banaras Hindu University). The Society built its own building in 1966. Fund was collected from the members of the Society and grants were obtained from the Central and State Governments. The foundation stone of the building was laid on 25th October, 1961 by then the President of India, Late Shri Sarvapalli Radhakrishanan. This building is known as Altekar Smarak Bhavan. The present building has a library consisting of 2000 Books. Besides, it also contains national and international journals. The Society owns its own Museum in which many rare coins are kept. In 1953 Smt. Ram Dulari Dubey D/o Shree Chandrika Prasad Dubey and a member of the Society donated a small collection of gold and silver coins of her father which now forms the collection of the Society. However, a lot remains to be done in this connection.

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL

President                                  :         Prof. Chandra Shekhar Gupta, Nagpur

Chairman                                  :         Prof. Jai Prakash Singh, Varanasi

Vice Chairman                          :         Prof. Ashvini Agrawal, Chandigarh

General Secretary                     :         Prof. Paras Nath Singh, Varanasi

Treasurer                                  :         Dr. Onkar Nath Singh, Varanasi

Joint secretary                          :         Dr. Mohd. Naseem, Varanasi

Members                                  :          Prof. Arun Kesarwani, Krukshetra

Prof. C.D. Singh, Rewa

Prof. Manmohan Kumar, Rohtak

Dr. Dilip Kumar Phukan, Assam

Dr. Suman Jain, Varanasi

Dr. H.D. Pathak, Jabalpur (M.P.)

Shri Jagdish Agarwal, Kolkata

MEMBERSHIP :- Membership of the Society is of three types

(1)     Annual Membership

(2)     Life Membership

(3)     Institutional Membership

Any adult person can enroll himself/herself as a member by filling up a form and paying a membership fee:-

          Membership                            Indian                 Foreign

(1) Annual Membership                      Rs.150/-              50 US Dollars

(2) Life Member                                 Rs.1500/-            400/- ,,    ,,

            (3) Institutional Member                      Rs.2000/-            500/- ,,    ,,

          Postal address for forms and sending membership fee

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