Rezwan Razack: The man who kept India’s money from being forgotten

Razack’s family roots are in the Kutchi Memon community — traders who migrated from Sindh to Kutch 600 years ago, and eventually to Bengaluru. His father started with a fabric shop on Commercial Street in 1956. It is still there. The values he absorbed in that shop — precise measure, honest dealing, always give a little more than you promise — translated directly into how Prestige builds. “If we say it’s 800 square feet,” he says, “it will be 801. But it won’t be 799.”

The connection between building and collecting is not something he theorizes about. He simply notes: he is drawn to old things. His home is 150 years old, restored rather than renovated. He never collected coins. Only paper money. One passion, all resources. For over five decades.

His latest book, Paper Money of the Princely State of Hyderabad, released in January by former RBI Governor D. Subbarao, started as a half-page newspaper article from forty years ago that he felt had too many gaps. It became 388 pages.