Retired employees will not get silver coins
A special tradition that has been going on in Indian Railways for 20 years has now ended. Railway Board has stopped with immediate effect the practice of giving gold plated silver medals (silver coins) as farewell gifts to its retired officers. Railways started giving gold plated silver coins weighing about 20 grams to retiring employees in March 2006.
There are thousands of employees who were distributed silver coins in 20 years. Board’s Principal Executive Director Renu Sharma issued a formal order in this regard on Wednesday (January 28, 2026). In which it is written “Discontinuation of practice of presenting Gold plated Silver Medals to retiring Railway officials.”
Medal scam became the reason
The ‘medal scam’ that came to light in Bhopal division is considered to be a major reason behind this decision. Investigation found that the coins given on retirement were ‘fake’, containing only 0.23\% silver. In this case, Railways has registered an FIR against the concerned supplier and started the process of blacklisting him.
The existing medal stock with the Railways will now be used for other purposes. This new rule will also be applicable to the officers retiring on 31 January 2026, that is, now they will not get this medal.
What did the Railways say?
WCR (West Central Railway CPRO) Harshit Srivastava said that there were about 3600 such coins which were to be distributed, out of which one has returned in which defect was found in the coins. In Rajasthan, a case of giving gold-polished copper coins instead of silver coins to retired railway employees came to light. Upon investigation based on the suspicion of an employee, only 0.25% silver was found in the coins. Vigilance investigation started on suspicion of distribution of fake coins since last two years.
A similar case was found in Madhya Pradesh. There has been a big fraud with the retired employees of Bhopal Railway Division. As a mark of respect he has been handed a fake coin. When the retired employees came to know that they had been handed over copper coins in the name of silver. Lab testing revealed that it contained only 0.23 grams of silver.