Recently, read in the papers that Kolkata is facing a mysterious shortage of coins especially of small denominations like 25 paise, 50 paise, Re 1 and Rs 2, the ferrous stainless steel ones. It’s said that its smuggled into Bangladesh, where they are made into razors and other ornaments. It’s the small shopkeepers who suffered the most and there was a long queue before the RBI for collecting the coins, and the beggars were the better alternatives for coin other than the bank. Officials investigating the disappearance of coins, claim that a one-rupee coin can be melted down to make three or four razor blades, worth two rupees each. The coins are disappearing fast, so fast that RBI had to pump in 900 million pieces of fresh coins only in May to restore the demand-supply imbalance. While in Kolkata, many are suffering due to the shortage of coins, in other part of India even the beggars, bus conductors and shopkeepers don’t even value the 25 paise, 50 paise. When given to them, either we...