The INHCRF boasts an immense print library that is considered one of the best for Indian numismatics globally. With its exemplary collection of archaeological, historical, and Indological and epigraphic publications on its shelves, it is an invaluable resource for historians, numismatists, archaeologists and epigraphists amongst others. It also houses old and current issues of both Indian and global journals. The online bibliographic catalog of the library is available here (we will put a hyperlink here, which will direct to the OPAC section)

Apart from books and periodicals, the library has a well-classified ‘Offprint Section’ with over 6500 articles published in different journals and volumes. 

Further, with more than 300,000 photographic archives of Indian coins, our Library has one of the largest and most unique such archival collection in the world. Our collection ranges from private and museum holdings to coins in trade and covers coins from the earliest Punch Marked coins to the latest ones.

Many a times, news about the finds of coins or other antiquities, archaeological discoveries, art, culture, and important events are published in newspapers. Such news items, more often than not, remain our only source of information for research. Clippings of such news items, numbering over 12,500, all well classified, are available for easy reference in the ‘News Clipping Section' of our library.

Another important section of the library is the ‘Document Archives’, consisting of over 1,00,000 papers of scholars and students who have conducted extensive research remain a great resource for the students not only through their publications but also in the form of their papers, worksheets, notes/notings, correspondence, containing many unpublished materials. These are preserved in the ‘Document Archives’. This section includes papers and entire correspondence of the Late (Dr.) Parmeshwari Lal Gupta, the Late (Prof.) Ajay Mitra Shastri, the Late (Prof.) B. N. Mukherjee, the Late Charles Biddulph, the late K. W. Wiggins, especially with Charles Panish and Pridmore, the late C. H. Kraay, Joe Cribb, Michael Mitchinir and many other renowned numismatists and academicians. All these papers are preserved in special acid-free boxes and are available for consultation.

The INHCRF Library collection is enriched by the generous donations (whole library collections) of scholars like Dr. Parmeshwari Lal Gupta, Dr. P. M. Joshi, Dr. Ajay Mitra Shastri, Dr. B. N. Mukherjee (North India and Central Asia), Dr. Kalpana Desai, and Dr. Malti Mahajan among others. We are also fortunate to receive books from other such learned individuals.

We welcome scholars and students of numismatics, archaeology, epigraphy, anthropology, Indology and allied disciplines to use our facilities.