Commodities in Coin

I have read this story a long time ago about the smuggling of coins made with silver in India to Bangladesh. It was fascinating to me because the story told me that the metal that these coins were made is worth more than the face value of these coins.

So why do I revisit this story after decade and half? I have a friend who is 76 and never fails to pick up a penny if he sees one on the street. He told me how he had collected coins like that and recieved $500 from the bank for the coins he picked off of the street. He questions 'How can a country not respect a value of its pennys? It is worth something'. It got me thinking why people do not value penny and what had happened the coins in India. They were smuggled and allowed to be smuggled because the people felt there have value to them as they 5, 10 and 25 paise.

I mentioned about the story of the low end coins from India that were once smuggled to Bangladesh. He was amazed to hear it and surprising there was show on TV called '60 minutes' which ran story recently after our conversation.

I wanted to see if I can find the story online somewhere that I read in a Telugu daily some 15 years ago.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6766563.stm
http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/archives/004528.html