One Rupee coins - XI

1 rupee, Jawaharlal Nehru centenary(with cap)

This one rupee coin was released on the centenary of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, who was the first prime minster of independent India. A stamp on the same was also released in USSR in the same year.

1 rupee, Jawaharlal Nehru without cap

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Prime Minister of independent India and was born at Allahabad on 14 November 1889. He was the son of Motilal Nehru and Swarup Rani. From the age of 15 to 23 Jawaharlal studied in England at Harrow, Cambridge and the Inner Temple returning to India in 1912.

Jawaharlal Nehru remained the Prime Minister of India for 17 years and can also be called the architect of modern India. He set India on the path of democracy and supported the Parliament, multi-party system, independent judiciary and free press. He also encouraged Panjayati Raj.

He created institutions like Planning Commission, National Science Laboratories and laid the foundation of a vast public sector for developing infrastructure for industrial growth. He advocated the development of both the public and private sector. Nehru gave a clear direction to India’s role on the world scenario with the policy of non alignment and the principle of Panchsheel, the five principles of peaceful coexistence at a time when the rivalries of cold-war were creating a looming danger of the third world war. Education to him was very important for internal freedom and fearlessness. He insisted if the world was to exist at all; it must exist as one. Emotional sensitivity and intellectual passion infused his writings, giving them unusual appeal and topicality even today.He wrote a number of books like ‘The Discovery of India’, ‘Glimpses of World History’.'The Discovery of India' was later turned into a series titled 'Bharat Ek Khoj' and was aired on Doordarshan(national television of India). He was awarded Bharat Ratna in 1955. He never forgot India's great cultural heritage and liked to combine tradition with modernity.

Nehru was a leading figure in India's struggle for independence, and was recognized as a political heir to Mahatma Gandhi. He became the first prime minister of independent India when he took the office on 15th August,1947 and gave a speech titled "tryst with destiny". That period was marked by communal riots as lakhs of refugees migrated after the partition. and Nehru was affected by the omnipresent violence and an atmosphere of apprehension and distrust. He tried to assuage the migrant refugees. But that non-violent attitude of his was also the reason of his two biggest failures: Firstly when Pakistan attacked Kashmir in 1947 and took a significant part of it, and strife and conflicts continue to this day. Secondly, India faced a humiliation at the hands of China in 1962 and took over 20,000 square kms of Indian territory.There are those who believe that the Indian army would have driven the Pakistani army out of Kashmir but Nehru chose not to, so the fight over Kashmir lives on as the valley becomes run over by terrorists. He also started the non aligned movement(NAM) along with Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia,Gamal Abdal Nasser of Egypt and Sukarno of Indonesia .

Pandit Nehru loved children and they call him affectionately as Chacha Nehru. Hie birthday is observed as Children's Day. He believed that children are the future of the nation. Nehru passed away in 1964, when the above coin was released. The above 1 rupee also happens to be the first commemorative minted in the Republic of India.

1 rupee, 1982

Weight: 8gm
Metal: Nickel
Diameter: 28mm


1 rupee, 1970

Weight: 10gm
Metal: Nickel
Diameter: 28mm

The above 1 rupee coin is the second rarest 1 rupee coin of Republic India to be released for circulation. This particular variant of the rupee was released only in the year 1970, though the same coin type was also released as part of proof sets from 1970-1974.(From 1971-74 the 1 rupee coin was not released for circulation, and was only released as part of some proof sets. The mintage of all these 1 rupee coins is estimated to be at about a few thousand each. The shown coin is different from the large 1 rupee coins released from 1975-1982(like the one shown above this coin as the weight of this one exceeds the weight of those by 2gm, and there is slight variation in the thickness of the '1' and the emblem.

Note: The 1 rupee of 1960 is the rarest 1 rupee of republic India, but it was never released for circulation as it was a rejected pattern coin.