Sachin Tendulkar, A Man with A Golden Coin

New Delhi: After writing his name in golden words in the Book of cricket history now Sachin Tendulkar is being literally etched in gold. First it was cricketing authorities who used special Gold coin for toss for little master's last two test against West Indies and now two Jewelers are creating his image on Gold and silver coins.Mumbai based SSS & Company has come out with 100 Tendulkar-embossed silver coins of 10 gm each. Now Bangalore-based Valuemart Gold & Jewels plans to shell out Tendulkar-embossed coins for its 3,000 retail outlets in the country by the month-end. It has already begun retailing the coins through online portals such as eBay and Snap deal, which are offering them as collectibles. “The euphoria around Sachin will not die down just because he has retired,” said CK Vasudevan, managing director of Valuemart Gold & Jewels, which has signed a three-year-contract with Tendulkar to be its brand ambassador. “In fact, his admirers would want to get hold of something special, which could enable them to freeze him in time and their memories.” On e-Bay, a 20-gm Sachin Tendulkar Special Edition Silver Coin is being sold for Rs 2,499 and a 200-gm silver coin for Rs 16,899. The online giant has already sold 800 such coins. “Everyone is keen to have a little piece of him, especially now,” said Alok Agarwal, director, marketing, e-Bay India. Snapdeal has sold 200 of these silver coins so far, said Amit Maheshwari, VP of fashion merchandising at Snapdeal.com. The jewellers' initiatives come at a time when domestic demand for gold and silver is low and even during festive months of October and November when the demands for usually go up, the demand has remained weak. According to trade data overall sales of gold and silver coins on Dhanteras — a day Indians consider as auspicious for purchase of precious metals — was down 80% from a year ago. “Queries are coming from places like Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha for these coins,” said Dhavin Shiroya, a jeweller from south Mumbai's Dagina Bazaar who is selling Tendulkar embossed silver coins for . 1,000 apiece. “The dye is ready with us and we can manufacture Sachin coins in gold as well.” Rajiv Popley, director of Popley & Sons, another Mumbai-based jewellery firm, said he was a dealer some 15 years ago when Perth Mint of Australia had launched coins with Tendulkar's face embossed on them. “I would love to introduce Sachin coins, provided I get the licence from him to introduce such coins.”