TTD plans to get 35 tonne foreign coins exchanged

​Tirupati: Over 35,000 kg of coins of various countries, donated by devotees to the Lord Venkateswara temple at Tirumala over a period of time, will be exchanged with banks for Indian currency soon, a top official of the shrine said on Thursday.

The major share of the foreign coins was from Malaysia, Singapore and the US. The coins were deposited in the 'hundi' of the hill temple by devotees from across the world, D Sambasiva Rao, executive officer of Tirumala-Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), which manages the shrine, said.

Rao said he had recently ordered the TTD finance department to start segregating the coins based on the denominations and countries. TTD additional financial adviser and chief accounts officer O Balaji said the temple administration has written to the RBI about the foreign coins.

"Based on the advice of the RBI, we have started holding talks with several nationalised banks, including State Bank of India, on the matter," he said.

"We will go ahead with the process meticulously only after observing the modalities, including the logistics responsibility and satisfactory exchange for the heap of coins," he said. ICICI Bank has shown interest and has come forward to take the coins, he said.