Arvind Kumar Pai, a notaphilist and philatelist from Cherthala of Alappuzha, has many records to his credit.
The 33-year-old has now collected 1,200 one-rupee currency notes bearing serial numbers that match with dates of historical and important events in the country.
For instance, a note with serial number 311084 match the date of assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (October 31, 1984), 010148 (January 01, 1848 — India’s first school for girls opened at Bhide Wada in Pune), 080457 (April 8, 1857 — Mangal Pandey was hanged), 280228 (February 28, 1928 — Discovery of Raman Effect), 121136 (November 12, 1936 — Temple entry proclamation), 261149 (November 26, 1949 — Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution of India), 050457 (April 05, 1957 — the first-ever elected Communist government came into power in Kerala), 250675 (25 June 1975 — Emergency declared), to mention a few.
“I started collecting these notes in 2015. I am trying to tell the country’s history through the collection,” says Mr. Arvind, a teacher at Government Town Lower Primary School, Cherthala.
Earlier, he entered the Limca Book of Records for having the largest collection of ₹1 notes totalling 11,111. He also entered record books for possessing at least three notes signed by each of the Finance Secretaries from K.R.K. Menon to Ratan P. Watal.
Mr. Arvind has at least three one-rupee notes in every batch of ₹1 issued in the Independent India.
In 2015, he along with his mother Renjitha Bai, entered Limca Book of Records after he sent her an envelope with most number of stamps pasted on it (322 stamps).
In the same year, he entered Asia Book of Records and India Book of Records for possessing the most number of Gandhi Stamps in Asia and India respectively.