In this post, we will discuss the fascination which prevails for fancy numbers and how this impacts our decisions, in relation to cars, mobile phones, production of Bollywood films or acquisition of currency notes for numismatic collections. Before delving into the specifics of the practice of collecting fancy numbers in Numismatics, it is interesting to observe how certain numbers have, over time, become special and irresistible for individuals.
Let’s begin with the number 7, often considered to be a magic number and lucky. There are seven wonders of the world, seven colours of the rainbow, seven seas, seven continents, seven chakras, Snow White had seven dwarfs, opposite sides of an ordinary dice also add up to seven, David Beckham of Manchester United wears the No. 7 Jersey. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian Cricket Captain also wore Jersey No. 7 in Test Cricket and it is expected that no other player will wear this number as a mark of respect to him and that this number is 'unoffically retired' like Sachin Tendulkar's famous Jersey No. 10. Dhoni chose the number 7 as he was born on July 7, 1981 and as he loves football, his favourite player Ronaldo's jersey no. was 7. There are seven days in a week named after the planets- Monday (Moon), Tuesday (Mars), Wednesday (Mercury), Thursday (Jupiter), Friday (Venus), Saturday (Saturn) and Sunday (Sun). A week is roughly about a quarter of the time from one new moon to the next. Is this all a coincidence or is there a deeper hidden universal truth behind this?
Sachin Tendulkar chose the number 10 for his jersey as 10 comes in his surname Tendulkar and is considered lucky by him. Similarly, the current Cricket Captain Virat Kohli considers himself lucky to wear Jersey No. 18 as his dear father died on December 18, 2006 and after wearing a T-shirt of 18, he feels that his father is around him.
Numbers like 11, 51 are considered to be auspicious in Hinduism. The number “11” in Numerology is considered to be a “Master Number”. A number ending with “0” is considered inauspicious and at the shradh function on the death of a person, we give an amount ending with “0”. When we give an amount as a gift, say on the occasion of a marriage, we add “1” to make it auspicious and lucky, a good start, a blessing. When I bought a Maruti Car in 1985, I took the registration number 51, which I thought would be easy to remember and also lucky for me. My brother-in-law used to select 9009 as the registration number for all his cars, as he considered the number 9 to be lucky for him and also easily recognisable.
Many prefer the number 786 and even mobile phone numbers bearing these three digits are procured at a premium from the telecom operators. It is believed that 786 is a Holy Number and highly lucky as it is considered to be the total numerological value of ‘Bismillah-al-Rahman-al-Raheem’ (In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful) as per the Abjad method which assigns an arithmetic value to each of the alphabets. Though this is not mentioned in the Quran and is a later development, many Muslims when they begin writing important things, they begin with 786 at the top, just like many Hindus write ॐ (Aum) in the beginning.
The first verse of the Quran "Bismillah al Rahman al Raheem" in beautiful Arabic calligraphy
The number 786, said to have mystical powers, has been used in many Bollywood films including the action film Deewar (1975) where the billa number of Amitabh Bachhan (who was a coolie) was 786, as also in the action comedy film Coolie (1983) with the famous dialogue “Baju pe 786 ka hai billa”. It is said that Amitabh Bachhan attributes the phenomenal box-office success of Deewar to his number 786 and also his recovery from the accident on the sets of Coolie to the badge with the number 786 he was wearing when the accident occurred. To bring good fortune, in the poster of Coolie, one “O” was replaced with the picture of “Billa No 786”.
Some other famous Bollywood films with 786 are Shah Rukh Khan’s character “Qaidi No 786” in the film “Veer Zaara” and the Akshay Kumar film “Khiladi 786”.
Some people believe that 786 represents the Sanskrit symbol for Aum-ॐ. Others believe that when Brahma (related to number 7), Vishnu (related to number 8) and Mahesh (related to number 6) join together to form the Trinity, they become 786. Even in Christianity, there is a belief that 786 represents Jesus Christ.
Moving on to numbers that are not so desirable. In the West, the number “13” is considered unlucky and many persons avoid getting married or buying a new house on the 13th. Why is this belief prevalent? In a tarot card deck, XIII is the card of Death, usually picturing a horse with Death as its rider. Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th to sit at the table at the Last Supper. Apollo 13, a NASA crewed mission in 1970 was meant to land on the moon, but the lunar landing was aborted after an oxygen tank failed and with great difficulty, the three member crew was brought back safely to Earth. "Friday the 13th" is a horror film of 1980 which builds on the theme that number 13 is unlucky.
Due to this Western influence, even in India, often there are no takers for the number “13” and, therefore, many multi-storied apartments do not have a 13th Floor or a 13th Block. The number 13 was considered to be unlucky for Atal Bihari Vajpayee. When he became Prime Minister of India for the first time on May 16, 1996 his Government lasted only for 13 days and he was called the '13 day PM'. When he was sworn in as PM for the second time on March 19,1998 after 13 months, he lost the vote of confidence by one vote on April 17, 1999.
However, USA was created from 13 British colonies and the number 13 is a recurring motif. The American Flag has 13 stripes (7 red and 6 white). The Great Seal of the United States consists of 13 things of the same type- in the right talon, the eagle holds the Olive Branch of Peace (13 olives and 13 olive leaves); in the left talon, the eagle holds the Weapons of War (13 arrows); in the eagle's mouth is the scroll with the national motto "E Pluribus Unum" consisting of 13 letters. On the reverse of the Seal is an unfinished pyramid consisting of 13 levels.
The Sikh community also consider the number 13 to be very auspicious. '13' in Hindi (Terah) and Punjabi means 'Tera' and Sikhs believe that all we possess is 'Tera'- belongs to God 'Sab Tera Waheguru'. The holy word 'Waheguru' appears 13 times in the sacred book 'Guru Granth Sahib'. Baisakhi, the harvest festival of Punjab, marking the beginning of Punjabi New Year was celebrated for many years on April 13. The number 1313 is, therefore, considered to be a premium number and many persons have it on their car number plates.
I am reminded of an interesting story my father used to tell me about the Rolls Royce 1927 convertible (six cylinders) he had acquired (originally belonging to the Maharaja of Darbhanga). It had the unique number 420, which my father got changed (because of the negative connotation it had - "Dekho 420 ja raha hai"- See Mr. 420 is going) to the first number which was then available-719. A photograph of the Rolls Royce (with me standing in the front row extreme right, along with my family) clicked in 1971 at Ranchi is given below. Unfortunately, we do not have a photo of the car with the original 420 number!
Apart from this, I have lovely memories associated with the Rolls Royce. My father told me that when he was going to get married in 1949, it was unbelievable that 26 persons including him travelled in that car, inclusive of those standing on the two side boards as well as the foldable luggage carrier at the back of the car. The journey by the Rolls from Darbhanga to Ranchi (435 kms) in 1962 when my father got transferred from Darbhanga Medical College to the newly opened Ranchi Medical College was indeed memorable. The Rolls had a fuel tank of 14 gallons (53 litres), with a manual switch to dip into the reserve petrol and used to give a mileage of 8 miles (12.8 Km) per gallon. On long journeys, we used to carry a jerrycan for extra petrol.
The car had two horns- the distinctive Klaxon horn of the Rolls as well as a manual Bhopu horn (curved brass car horn), which was very amusing to hear. I also remember that in 1968 when the car needed a new tyre, my father wrote to Dunlop, the tyre manufacturer and though they agreed to pull out the tyre dies from their storage, we were asked to buy a set of four tyres, to which we had to agree.
Rolls Royce 1927 model (BRG 719)
The fascination for Fancy Registration Numbers for cars e.g., numbers falling between 1 to 100 (including the lucky number 7, James Bond 007), 786, 1001, 1313, etc. has been there for a long time. While earlier, these numbers were procured by persons by utilising their influence, this human tendency is now being monetised by the state governments to augment their revenue by levying a fee for any specific registration number you desire and also by inviting bids for some special numbers, over and above the minimum reserve price.
Now, coming to the world of numismatics, there is a similar fascination for fancy serial numbers amongst collectors, and currency notes with these fancy numbers often command a premium as they are few in number and are rare. There are several types of Fancy and Unique Numbered Currency Notes of India, some of which are extremely rare and you need to be lucky to have them. I have discussed below some of these Fancy Numbers.
Fancy Serial Numbers in Indian Currency Notes can broadly be divided into the following categories (finding a logic in numbers is a skill and there can be other categories also) and photos of some currency notes from my collection are given below:
1.
Million Serial Number: 1000000, 2000000,
3000000, 4000000, 5000000, 6000000, 7000000, 8000000, 9000000, 10000000
(A serial number followed by six zeroes -
in 10 lakh notes of one series, there are only 10 such notes)
2. Solid Number : 111111, 222222, 333333, 444444, 555555,
(
3. Super Solid Number : Such as 66 666666
(Prefix Letter (B) also looks like the serial number 8)
(Prefix is also same as serial number - only one note in 10 crore notes)
4. Ultimate Note : Such as B 888888
(Prefix Letter (B) also looks like the serial number 8)
5. Rotator Notes : 111111, 888888
(If you rotate the note, the value of the serial number does not change)
6. Mirror or Reflect Note : Such as 66W 000666 and 99M 000999
(Set of two notes whose serial numbers form a mirror image)
7. First Notes of a Series (1 to 9) : 000001 to 000009
(In this serial number, minimum number of digits to repeat is two and minimum times to repeat is
two)
9. Repeater Number (Three Digits repeated) : Such as 245245, 578578, 398398, 621621
10. Ladder Numbers (ascending order) : 123456, 234567, 345678, 456789
(In 10 lakh notes of one series, there are only 4 such notes)
11. Ladder Numbers (descending order) : 987654, 876543, 765432, 654321
(In 10 lakh notes of one series, there are only 4 such notes)
12. Independence Day Number : 150847
(In 10 lakh notes of one series, there is only 1 such note)
13. Republic Day Number : 260150
(In 10 lakh notes of one series, there is only 1 such note)
14. Birth Date of Mahatma Gandhiji : 021069
(In 10 lakh notes of one series, there is only 1 such note)
15. Death of Mahatma Gandhiji : 300148
(In 10 lakh notes of one series, there is only 1 such note)
16. RADAR Numbers : Such as 980089, 024420, 004334, 004400
(If read from left to right or right to left, the value of the serial number does not change)
17. Holy Number 786 : Such as 000786, 786000, 078600, 007860, 786786
I recently received an SMS from a telecom company offering the following VVIP mobile numbers for sale at a price of Rs. 55,000/- each (plus GST of 18%):
9000000000, 9900000000, 8000000000, 7000000000, 9191919191, 9199999999 and 9099999999.
You can imagine from the above the premium Fancy Numbers command in every field, including Numismatics. Happy Collecting !
In the next post, I will discuss the third part of Khissa Ek Rupaiya Ka - Dhaatu (token one rupee coins made of nickel, cupro-nickel and then ferritic stainless steel).
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© Sushil Kumar Mishra 2020
