Teenage coin collector headed for Guinness

Heads or Tails? Deviprasad Mangaraj hopes his staggering collection of antique coins would make it to the Guinness Book.

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Bhubaneshwar: 15-year-old Deviprasad Mangaraj has attained worldwide fame for his hobby, which has resulted in his possessing the country's largest collection of antique coins.

The teenage numismatist has more than 40 thousand antique coins from 120 different countries and hopes to enter the Guinness Book of World Records soon.

But it's not just the love for records that keeps him going.

"By collecting such coins I am keen to make people aware of the history, important personalities and the period of those coins," says Mangaraj, who dreams of building a coin museum for children in Bhubaneshwar.

In this regard he was promised help by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, then president APJ Abdul Kalam and the state government.

Deviprasad's father, Prasanna Kumar Mangaraj says, "The state government promised us land for the museum. We have been running from pillar to post but have encountered nothing but difficulties."

The latest offer of help has come from Orissa Governor Muralidhar Chandrakant Bhandare.

"I am not going to sleep over it. I will follow it up very actively," Bhandare promised.

For Mangaraj, the governor's words are worth their weight in gold.