Udaipur's currency man Vinay Bhanawat to be conferred a Honorary Doctorate on 15 May

World renowned currency man Vinay Bhanawat from Udaipur will be receiving a honorary Doctorate degree from the Aiipphs State Government University in Delhi. As per the letter from Anju Bhandari, the Vice Chancellor of the university, Vinay Bhanawat will receive the degree on 15 May 2021.

Vinay Bhanawat, with many world records under his belt, is a noted notephilist, numistmatist and tennor collector, all wrapped in one.  A unique collection of his for which he is famous, is that of currency notes having the digits "786" in the serial number.

Bhanawat's earlier recognitions include entries in the Limca Book of Records, High Range Book of World Records, apart from being recognised for more than 2 dozen records.

Bhanawat has been collecting notes and coins since the age of 15. He says that his family was aware of this passion of his and supported him. Later, his wife also provided support in his passion to collect currency. He has nearly 100,000 notes bearing the digits "786". This number 786 hold a special significance for Muslims.

His hobby for collection of stamps began when he was 11, but it was 4 year later, when he realised that collection of currency notes and coins was more interesting. He took this up as as a hobby, which eventually led him to achieve world records.

Bhanawat’s passion for collection was such that he ended up buying a Rs 1 note from a British collector in Mumbai for Rs 27,000 since the serial number of the note was just 786. He was also sent a currency note from Pakistan, in which the figure 786 is printed twice. Bhanawat's collection also includes ancient and valuable coins, which includes a copper coin with a hole, coins from the Mughal Era, and many other old coins, which weigh over 20kg.

Bhanawat also holds world record for most number of fancy notes and defective notes. Fancy notes are those currency notes that have special series like 11111, 22222 etc. He has this series for all notes from Rs 1 to Rs 2000. He also has huge collection of defective notes. Defective notes include notes with wrong or missing signatures, misprints, wrong shapes etc.

His interesting collection also includes notes that have pretty much all date of birth matching numbers. He gifts these “date of birth” notes to well known personalities. He has already gifted over 250 date of birth notes to personalities like CM Vasundhara Raje, Ustaad Amjad Ali, Birju Maharaj etc.

Bhanawat plans to open a museum of his collection for the local public and tourists.