Patna, Oct. 18: This Dhanteras, flip and turn the gold coin you purchase from State Bank of India (SBI) to check its authenticity. For, it is not providing certificate number to customers purchasing gold coins this year.

A government official on condition of anonymity told The Telegraph: “I have been transacting with many banks and have found that all banks except SBI are providing certificate numbers with coins. When I was purchasing a gold coin from SBI, I found the certificate number missing on it. When I asked the bank officials about it, they were also surprised.”

The SBI, however, claimed that it provided its customers with ASSAY certification, an authorisation of test of purity. Binod Kumar, the assistant general manager of SBI, specialised personal banking branch, said: “We provide our customers with all the certification details except the number. Besides certificates of the coins, they get tamperproof packs that consists ASSAY certification assuring quality. Not only this, we assure our customers with 99.9 per cent purity of the coin.”

Over the years, people have been queuing up at banks that sell gold coins during Dhanteras more than jewellery shops. Several citizens have made it a custom to purchase gold coins from banks because of the authenticity of the quality of the metal. The banks, too, are going all out to woo customers.

Rita Prasad, a homemaker who wishes to purchase gold coin this Dhanteras, said: “We go to banks to purchase gold coins because we believe that they are pure. But if banks do not provide certificate number with coins, how can we trust a bank? Banks are supposed to be most reliable when it comes to selling gold coins.”

K.N. Jha, the chief manager of Indian Bank (Patna main branch) said: “Certification number is required for identification of the quality. Every customer who wishes to purchase gold coin is provided with a unique identification number at our bank. The certification number is printed on the tamperproof pack containing the gold coin.” Jha added that the bank has been selling gold coins from 2006 and it had started selling it on the occasion of Akshay Tritiya.

Shashi Kant, the branch service and compliance manager (C-Serv branch banking) of ICICI, said: “We provide our customers with gold coins in a tamperproof pack like other banks and it is available with a certificate number.”

A manager of Axis Bank said: “We see to it that our customers do not to have to face any problem after purchasing coins. We provide them with all documents.”