The Hindu Business Line : New coins test National Institute of Design's mettle

GET ready India, the new Rs 10 and Rs 5 coins will put the country on par with our European brethren as they will be a bimetallic fusion of alloys with gold and silver finish. The 50-paise, Re 1 and Rs 2 coins would use a single metal, while the Rs 5 and Rs 10 coins would have an outer ring of a second metal, giving it a golden sheen, like the euro.

The prototypes of these five denominationswill be rolled out of the Mumbai Mint any time now. The Ministry of Finance has cleared the payment of the Rs 9-lakh assignment fee to the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad. Business Line caught up with the man who crafted the identities of the BrahMos missile on the one hand and institutes such as IIM, Indore, on the other.

The graphic designer, Prof Anil Sinha, senior designer and Faculty of Communications Design at NID, admits that his team has bettered all previous efforts as these coins are expected to serve the country till 2015-20.

The NID team also included the product designer, Mr Sahil Karkhanis, three students signed on as research associates and ergonomist Dr Subir Das. "From day one, when a General Manager of the Hyderabad mint came calling at the NID to brief us, it has been a competitive assignment. Perhaps, a touch of complexity came up in the form of our client profile as there were three entities - Ministry of Finance (policy and approvals); Reserve Bank of India (paymaster) and the Government mints (manufacturer). The initial proposal was to design even 10 paise and 25 paise denominations but soon enough, it was decided more coins were something people could do without," Prof Sinha said.

The brief required them to consider four factors - the human element (usability), production requirements for the mints, metallurgy, and the graphic elements of an all-new look. At a presentation on August 19 at the Mumbai Mint, eight themes were short-listed. These were Unity in Diversity, Grooves, Information Technology, Science and Space Technology, Defence and Aviation, Mudra, Headgears and the Tactile factor. The July-October period also saw another 10 sets of designs being developed at the NID for the circular shape, decided upon largely to suit the requirement of vending machines.

"The key areas that we were required to work on were shape, size and weight of the coins. There was a perception that the Re1 and Rs 2 coins were too similar for comfort just as the Rs 5 coin was easy to counterfeit, often by sticking together two 50-paise coins. There was also the issue of portability as the Rs 5 coins were often seen bulging out of wallets," the product designer, Mr Karkhanis, said.

The final presentation on December 12 at the Mumbai Mint saw some bulk users of coins such as MTNL, BEST, Central and Western Railways, Maharashtra Road Transport and Greater Mumbai Milk Scheme approve the new set of coins. Themes given the final nod were Unity in Diversity, Grooves, Mudra and the Tactile factor, though all the short-listed themes are the client's property, Prof Sinha said.

Now that the coins are ready for production, it is all up to the speed with which the India Government Mints can roll out the first two sets of coins from the Mumbai Mint as per a Ministry of Finance directive. Henceforth, there will be a perceptible difference between the Re 1 and Rs 2 coins. The Rs 5 coin is lighter - it now weighs 6 gm instead of the earlier 9 gm. The Rs 10 coin will weigh 8 gm. While all the coins have been allocated space, both for thematic graphics and commemorative purposes, the end word is that even the blind should be able to recognise the different denominations. Surely, `feel-good factor' will take on a different meaning in the days to come, as far as money in the wallet is concerned.