KARACHI, Jan 2: As five-rupee coin has finally begun trickling into the market, notes of the same denomination are on their way out. One hopes that the mostly torn, crudely patched, crumpled and dirty notes will gradually disappear from the public view altogether.

Currency notes, particularly fivers and tenners, had been in a repulsive state before the last Eid. The festive occasion, thanks to the Eidi-giving tradition, added wads of new notes to the old ones, improving the overall quality of the paper money. Among the shabby ones, the remarkable presence of the new ones gives the bundles of notes a bearable look. However, the bickering over the exchange of notes between shopkeepers and customers, bus conductors and passengers, and among other trading people persists as a majority of the banknotes are still in a very bad shape. Those who want to give notes of questionable quality argue that they “have not minted them” at their homes. Those who refuse to accept such notes offer their own arguments for the rejection.

After every Eid-ul-Fitr currency notes get a facelift and by the next Eid- ul-Fitr they become wornout. A recent study by Karachi University revealed that dirty notes carry germs of various serious diseases and those holding and touching them may expose themselves to such contagious diseases. Coins are relatively safe, the study said.

Made of various metals, coins naturally endure longer than the notes. Sometimes they keep their shine for centuries. Coins of gold, silver and copper are among the most interesting objects in museums all over the world.

The new glittering coins have a charm of their own. People show a lot of interest when they initially begin rolling out. They want to see the shape, colour and size of the new coins and also to know about the metal used in them.

Coins may, however, pose their own kind of problem. Their weight and jingling in the pockets would be clumsy. The few problems the Japanese haven’t been able to tackle include the problem of coins. Although currency of high denomination also has coins, the actual worth of the yen in that country involves an exchange of a lot of coins. To make the transactions exact, they have coins of one yen and up to 500 yens. Many Japanese have specially-designed pockets to take care of this problem. Occasionally, however, an accident may set off an avalanche of coins.

The new coin was launched on December 26, 2002. Whereas some shopkeepers have begun receiving coins of five rupees, it will take a few more days to satisfy the curiosity of most people. The five-rupee coin has a big defect — the writing on it is not prominent. The two-rupee coin has the same defect. The writing on coins should be embossed prominently so that people of even weak eyesight can read it easily. Generally people have weak eyesight after the age of forty.

There is no doubt that coins stand “head and tail” above their paper counterparts. But they do not present a complete solution to the problem. Banknotes are easier to keep, carry and handle. What the State Bank needs to do is to maintain a steady flow of new notes through the immediate replacement of the wornout ones. Bank branches receiving their daily supplies from their head offices have to return every day a large number of the notes unacceptable to their customers. Even if these supplies are made of reasonably good notes, if the brand new are not possible, the problem would be solved to a large extent. — Naseer Ahmad