One can never have too many coins, whether for money or a collecting passion. At least not enough to cause a bank to run out of room, but the renowned Shirdi Temple’s Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust (SSST) recently did.
A report claims that state-owned banks where the temple trust maintains accounts have refused to accept coins from the trust because there isn’t enough room for them to be stored.
According to reports, the Shri Saibaba Trust has accounts at 13 different state-owned offices. One of them is in Nashik, however the most are exclusively in Shirdi.
Four of these 13 state-owned banks have stopped accepting additional coins that are given as contributions as a result of space issues. According to reports, the Shirdi Saibaba Trust gets thousands of rupees in currency contributions.
The Trust now has over Rs 11 crores deposited in coins in several banks.
As a significant portion of the gift to the Temple is made in coins, the Trust has written to the Reserve Bank of India asking for assistance.
“Representatives of these four banks said they did not have enough room to store the coins they receive daily. The CEO of the trust, Rahul Jadhav, told TOI that this is a major issue for the organization.
“At the same time, we have made the decision to contact banks in other areas of the Ahmednagar district and the state for assistance. In order for coins to be put there, we would create accounts for the trust in such banks,” he said.
In terms of donations, the Shirdi Saibaba Temple collects close to Rs 28 lakh each month in coins with denominations ranging from 50 paise to Rs 10.