Sunday, December 30, 2012

WOW! What a GOOD year 2012 has been for me!!

Good first and foremost, I wish everyone who is reading and faithfully following my blog,
                          " A Happy Blessed and Prosperous 2013"
and that all your hopes and aspirations come true for 2013!

What a Blessed and Prosperous 2012 has been for me.......................................it is really GOOD  ................despite all the "crabby Euro screw-ups, US fiscal cliff rubbish, end of the world Mayan nonsense, etc................" I've made Good enough in the equity market to buy notes that I wanted, go on GOOD holidays to neighbouring Malaysia thrice, Hong Kong once and had just returned from the United States after fifteen GOOD and enjoyable days, made some contributions into the GOOD and world renowned Owen Linzmayer's documented chapters of The Banknote Book.

Ahhhh.............wonder if you have been sharp enough to notice the number of "GOOD" that I have deliberately inserted. Why..........your GOODself may enquire?

Well, the word GOOD in Dictionary.com defines:
Adjective: of high quality
Noun: excellence or merit


The following 17th March 1911 Straits Settlement $1.00 is defined as a GOOD note!



                       Oh, what a misnomer to categorize this note as GOOD!

International Bank Note Society defination of a GOOD banknote:
A well worn and heavily used note. Normal damage from prolonged circulation will include strong multiple folds and creases, stains, pinholes, and/or staple holes, dirt, discoloration, edge tears, center hole, rounded corners and an overall unattractive appearance. No large pieces of the note may be missing. Graffiti is commonly seen on notes in Good condition.

Has any renowned numismatic society or establishment ever thought of correcting the grading term of "GOOD" to reflect a more accurate term, or has the numismatic world adopted a "first blind leading the rest of the blind" ;-)

Why am I so harsh to say something like "blind leading the blind".....................................
well, did you notice the currency commissioners' signatories of my 1911 $1.00 banknote.

Apparently, the currency commissioners' names mentioned by two respected Malaysian numismatic experts in their publication of their Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei articles during the mid 1970's and lately another 2010 publication by a premier authority in Petaling Jaya mentioned the same commissioners' names; Arthur Young, J.O. Anthonioz, D.Bratty.(the spelling of these names are according to the publishers' articles and are not necessary their correct names)

Now take a much more closer look............... does any of the signatures bear any resemblance to their names, be it alphabetically or otherwise?

Either my banknote which carries the undocumented signatures of E.L. Brockman, W.C. Mitchell, P.A.F.David a rarity  :-) or some so called premier experts made a BIG BOO BOO!!

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Singapore's 1916 Christmas Buys

Wow.............the spirit of Christmas is in the air already! How time really flies since my last article in June..............


Ever wondered what can you buy in 1916 for $10.00.....................................

 
The correct Currency Commissioners' names are Frederick Seton James, Arthur Meek Pountney and Charles James Saunders and not what some so called experts perceived.
 
 
Managed to acquire this piece a couple of months back for a "song".........I really had to sing to pacify me missus that paying a few thousand Singapore dollars was not an act of insanity!!


Well, these are a few things that having $10.00 during Christmas time in 1916 can buy:



 

 



These advertisements were extracted from various December 1916 newspapers
 
 
Happy Memories and Wishing A Very Merry Christmas and Prosperous 2013 New Year to you folks out there...................till 2013 then.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Plastic Fantastic ~ Singapore's Only $50 Polymer

How Singapore started her journey into the world of literally plastic money, starting with these articles from The Straits Times dated June 14, 1990........................................






The long anticipated date of release, July 24 1990,  finally arrived......................






The commemorative note comes with these envelope and deluxe folder:


envelope cover


front of deluxe folder

internal face of deluxe folder

back of deluxe folder





This pamphlet was not issued with the commemorative note but was available over various bank counters...............wonder how many collectors knew about it and managed to collect them too. Could this end up to be a more valuable collector's item than the note itself ? (wishful thinking )



and finally the commemorative notes.......................................................................ta rah!!


Whatttt......................errors already!!!


Yuupp..........look at the notes carefully and see if you can find the error!
(for the benefit of those who hates solving puzzles................................. the commemorative date of  '9 August 1990' is missing in the second consective note.....Major Error I would say)


The reverse face of the banknote:

 

                                    The rest of my commemorative collections:




  





This special serial numbered note was sold in an auction complete with the commemorative envelope and sticker label. 






These are some of the 4.8million pieces meant for circulation............ I wonder where.............NEVER seen any in circulation except............






     What again.......... another major error ........can spot the error?  This time you go spot it!


 
These notes with J prefix were printed as replacement notes(to replace error notes that have been spotted during the printing process and removed before delivery to the currency board).

The peculiar thing about these notes is that almost all have been folded with at least three creases and looks like that have been used around a long time in circulation.

I wonder how come...............does any one have the answer



Wahhhh....even the replacement notes have errors too.....this type of error is called reverse image wet ink transfers.


Another classic reverse wet ink transfers.............................



 this time it concerns the serial numbers appearing on the reverse of this replacement note.


Whew! at last.....................................THE END!


Oh! wait will these be the only plastic Singapore $50 ?

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Multiples of Brunei 1973 Second Series Specimen Banknote ??



This specimen banknote A/3 000000 was recently acquired from a Malaysian collector, don't know whether it was from the set which came from a 1995 Spink auction in Singapore:
Extracted from Spink Singapore Auction catalog of June 1995

  Coincidently, my newly acquired specimen banknote also matches the template banknote in prefixes and serial numbers with Steven Tan's latest 19th edition catalog and goes all the way back to my first catalog from him, the 8th edition from 1987:

19th Edition

                                                                           8th Edition

 Extracted from the Standard Catalogue of Malaysia-Singapore-Brunei Coins & Paper Money with kind courtesy and permission from Steven Tan.

Question: Are there multiples of these type of Specimen banknotes bearing the same prefix with zero numbers? Can anyone help provide the answer?

Saturday, January 14, 2012

New Year Greetings again..............................

Wishing all my Chinese friends and fellow collectors...............................................................  
                              
                             A  Very, Very Prosperous and Happy Chinese New Year!
                       May you get the banknotes you want at a bargain and sell with reasonable gains!!



This ang pow has a picture of a 1961 $10 'duit kerbau' banknote with a so called Chinese auspicious serial numbers. A stack of it was recently given to us by a friend, who had kept it for a long time.I wonder who printed this ang pow and whether are there any no other ang pows depicting banknotes? Anyone care to share?


Recently, I managed to acquire this serial number A/1, 1961 $10 'duit kerbau'............after selling my only A/1 AU piece to a good friend many, many 'donkey' or "kerbau" years ago for peanuts as they say..........S$35.00 YES!YES......S$35, Singapore Thirty Five dollars. This piece cost me more than 10 times of what I sold for!


Was it worth it? You tell me..................





Another very interesting point that I want to share with fellow collectors................

At the last Mavin International auction the following set was put up for bidding and the reserve price was S$75,000.00 (about RM183,750.00)

and sadly for the owner it was not sold, thereby probably costing him to pay auctioneer fees of about S$3,750.00 (may have cried lah! ...having to pay the commission for nothing)



Now the interesting part...............................roll back about 23 years to the year 1989 and this what it is all about:


An international coin & paper money auction & exposition "NUMISMEX '89" jointly organised by Merit Direct Marketing P/L and Spex P/L  held an auction at The Oriental Hotel Singapore on 31st August, and this very same set was put up for bidding with a reserve price of US$500.00 and sold for US$1,400.00 + 10% commission ( about S$3,350 or RM9,000....1989 exchange rate)............now I want to cry lah!! so cheap, cheap, cheap!! don't know how to bid!

So the moral of the story or article?
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