Jorhat, April 9 :    Jorhat, April 9:  It is a rare coin, so rare that it is believed to be one of the veryfew that still exist. Its proud owner, Om Prakash Gattani, took out the 1681 AD coin of the Ahom dynasty from his designer wooden shelf with great care. 'This coin is invaluable and was issued during the reign of Ahom king Gadadhar Singha (Supatrha),' he said, with a wide grin on his face. He took out another coin from its wooden frame. 'This is one of the last coins circulated during Ahom rule in 1821-22 when the Burmese were dominating Assam. It was issued during the rule of Jogeswar Singha,' he said. It is 8 pm, a normal evening for Gattani to relax after a hard day's work at his farmhouse near the Club Road here. Perched on a sofa with his cordless phone and trying to settle his business deals for the day, Gattani looked the typical Marwari businessman he is. He hardly seemed to be a coin collector. As he enthusiastically started talking about his collection, Gattani's passion shone forth as brilliantly as his coins. 'I am the only one in the world to have such a rare collection of coins belonging to the Ahom period,' he claimed. As an afterthought he added, 'I have been into coin collection for more than two decades now. I have not found anyone in Assam who shares my interest.' But how did a man, who comes from a traditional a business family, cultivate such a hobby? The story goes back to 1973, when Gattani was a 15-year-old student in the Rashtrabhasa School in Jorhat. 'My grandmother had a collection of rare Ahom coins. I remembered those and bought a couple of albums,' he disclosed. After that, there was no stopping Gattani. A turning point in Gattani's 'career' as a coin collector came in 1988-89 when he met one Lalwani who was a member of the Society of Numismatics in Calcutta. 'Through him I managed to procure a membership of the society and today, I am a member of each and every numismatic society in India,' said Gattani. A prominent businessman of Upper Assam, Gattani struck gold in 1985. 'By then I was known as a numismatist, at least in Assam. One day a tea estate employee from Titabor in Jorhat district came to me with the intention of selling some coins belonging to the Ahom dynasty. He brought nearly 35 coins with him,' he said. Gattani had to shell out Rs 200 per coin, but he got his invaluable Gadadhar Singha coin along with them. Underlining his popularity as a collector of coins, Gattani said, 'A couple of days back, a cycle mechanic came to me with five coins. I paid him Rs 350 and 10 kg of atta for the coins,' said Gattani, who owns a flour mill. Gattani is also planning to write a book on coins issued during the Ahom dynasty. 'Did you know that most of the coins issued during the Ahom dynasty are octagonal in shape because the Ahom kings believed their kingdom has eight corners?' he asked. Recapitulating the history of Ahom coins, Gattani added that when Sargadeo Shiva Singha was Ahom king in 1654, he issued coins in the names of his queens. 'He had four wives,' he said. 'However, the maximum number of coins was issued during the regime of Sargadeo Rajaeswar Singha. He issued coins inscribed in Bengali, Devnagari, Parsi and Urdu,' added Gattani. 'This was because his rule extended to the neighbouring countries,' he said. 'This is the reason,' Gattani added, 'why Ahom coins are still found in abundance in Bhutan. If a museum is set up in Assam I will be proud to donate my collections.'