Root Wood Coin of India is a collectible item that is made out of wood excavated from Delhi’s new parliament building site. The new parliament building’s name is Central Vista. The wood collected for making the root wood coin is from the roots of uprooted and relocated trees at the land where the new building is constructed. Officially, there are 22 heritage trees that are getting re-planted to a new location. The actual number of trees removed from the site is in large numbers and the government shows only a few among them as numbers – many say online and offline.
Production of Root Wood Coins
India’s root wood coins are produced by Imageindia Institute – an education and research organization based in New Delhi. The coin was introduced by the institute on the occasion of the 73rd Republic Day of India on 26th January 2022. The institute said that it had minted 31 handmade root wood coins from the root wood of a tree that was removed from the construction site of Central Vista.
What is Central Vista?
Central Vista is the name of India’s Newly Constructed parliament house in New Delhi. It is the largest and most important administrative office of the country as well. The project is not yet completed and it is nearing completion. The building consists of Lok Sabha – the lower house of parliament and Rajya Sabha – the upper house. In addition, there is a central hall that is a combination place of both the houses. It is also the official residence of the Indian Prime Minister. The building has all main ministries and administrative departments that control India as a whole. There is a large number of offices that including security offices that control the operation of the building.
The building is in a triangular shape compared to the circular-shaped old parliament house. The old house was designed by British architects Sir Edwin Lutyens in British ruled India. Even if the functioning of the houses is shifting to the sophisticated luxurious high-tech new building, the old building will be preserved. Also, there will be a connection between the two buildings. The new building is 5G enabled technology and latest visual and telecommunication facilities.
There are emotion-based complaints from people around that the charm and affection for the old are different and the new will not have that.
Value of Root Wood Coins of India
The president of Imageindia Institute Mr. Robinder Sachdev says that the coin is made to remind us all about the importance of Indian Democracy. It will remind us about the roots of democracy too. The coin has an outline of the shape of the Central Vista building that spreads the message of ‘live and let live’ to all global citizens.
The carving of the coin took more than one year for 31 numbers. These are once-in-a-lifetime coins. The coins will be used for traveling exhibitions as well. It will be given to a few Indian schools and colleges to display for some time. The period of displaying at educational institutions will be 2 to 4 weeks. This aims to make awareness of the sanctity of democracy – especially Indian Democracy.
There will be some coins that can be purchased through auctions. The revenue received by these sales and the auction will go fully into charity projects. The coins are having serial numbers to make their authenticity and control. Also, these are going to get listed in the Non-Fungible Token register which makes its genuineness more authoritative. The reason for registering in NFT is because of the Blockchain technology used in NFTs. No one can tamper it individually as the blockchain register is foolproof. This root wood coin is a form of digital art and that is the way it is treated and news is spread.
Root Wood Coin of India