Two of Malaya's Fractional Banknotes

These fractional banknotes were originally approved by the Board of Comissioners of Currency, printed in 1941 with further printings in 1943/44, held by the War Office and subsequently issued at the time of re-occupation.

                                                  Common Variety

Scarce Variety

They were also very unpopular with the Malayan people and prompted statement from the CCO, and a publication of this article from The Straits Times dated 3rd December 1949:                                

The 1 cent note was not the only unpopular one, the other low fractional was also the 10 cents note.

After reading this Straits Times article dated 10th December 1947, I wonder whether some of people still practise the water treament process? I shiver at such a thought that we as collectors sometimes smell old banknote. (Shiok lah! Wangi betul lah!)

                                                      Common Variety

                                   Common Variety but with rich inking of the central ornamental.

                             Common Variety but with light inking of the central ornamental.

                                                  Scarce Variety type II

Scarce Variety type III




By the way, only the Malayan low fractional banknotes 1cent, 5 cents & 10 cents are UNIFACE.
Why?

The Malaya Saga continues with Five Cents........................

You sometimes hear people say " my five cents worth........." ( inflation! gone up from two cents)

Well, here are my Five cents "worth"..............

The King George VI series has 2 distinct Jawi script variation under the King's portrait vignette. 

Could our Jawi learned collectors care to explain the meanings of the Jawi variations?

                               Type I                                          Type II

The Type I Jawi variety:

As of date there has been no reported design varieties for Type I.

The Type II Jawi variety :

a)

The common variety,

b)

The rare variety,

c)

                                                       The scarce variety.

This is a minor error note which I bought from an American dealer way back in the early 1980s.The error is in the lack of printing for the Jawi scripts and was only discovered many years later.

Close-up of the error:

                                 (ERROR)              (STANDARD)

All the notes are signed H. Weisberg - the signature of Hyman Weisberg, B.A., Financial Secretary of the Straits Settlements and Chairman of the Commissioners of currency, Malaya.

(excerpts from Coins and Coinages, F.Pridmore)

WARNING!

The following five cents notes are forgeries and I have seen some of them being passed off as the real thing and also on eBay.

As for most forgeries the printing are blurry and design patterns are not sharp.

Please examine them carefully before buying, be more careful if the seller does not allow you to remove the note from the plastic holder.

The saga of the Malaya 50cent Banknote................

 These notes were printed in England between 1941 and 1944, handed to the War Office to be held for readiness for issue upon re-occupation of Malaya.They were then subsequently released into circulation in September 1945.

However, the following article appeared in The Straits Times on 20 March 1949, three and half years later! Why?

                                                                         

                      

Did you know that amongst all banknotes issued during the Straits Settlements and British Malaya era, the fractional King George VI series of 1st July 1941 has the most number of design varieties. To collect all varieties in UNC condition is a challenge!

The following are the 50 cents varieties:

This 50 cents note is termed as an error note because  it is missing the colour purple in the large central ornamental panel.

Fractional currency ceases after this series, as they being of low value, they seldom reach the banks after issue and hence cannot be withdrawn and replaced. Moreover, the notes were very widely  and heavily used and became filthy in a short time, making the mintage of coins more economical and practical.

Emergency 10-Cent Note 1940

Shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War there was a currency shortage created by the hoarding of silver coins because the value of silver was higher than the face value of the coins.Legislative action was taken to prohibit such practices, but although this had some slight effect, the shortage still persisted.
The Currency Commissioners then decided to print a new issue of 10-cent notes to defeat the hoarders and intending profiteers, while retaining in circulation a medium of exchange.
In view of the delay which would have ensued if the notes were produced in England, these were then printed locally at the Survey Department Office, Kuala Lumpur.An order was placed for 2,000,000 pieces on 17th July 1940.The 10-cent notes were printed and delivered to the Commissioners by 20th August 1940.The work has been executed in a remarkably short space of time through the services of some 20 European women who were engaged to examine the notes while still in sheet form, for the detection of printing errors and flaws.
(certain excerpt from Coins and Coinages, F. Pridmore)

Have you come across any errors and flaws? Share with us if you do.

The 10-cent notes were then released to the public in September of the same year. (My sincere apologies as I had previously mentioned it was issued 5 years later, this error was spotted by Owen Linzmayer, my thanks to him)

                                       (extracted from The Straits Times 6th September 1940)

According to a Malaysian cataloger, the prefix letters range from A to M.

Singapore Orchid Specimen Banknotes Worthless??

On 19March 1977, this article appeared in the local newspaper....

                                                                            (extracts from The Straits Times)

Almost twelve years later, this brochure was handed out at the annual Singapore coin show........

thus putting a monetary value for all Singapore Specimen banknotes.

At a recent auction, the Specimen Orchid series album and the Bird series fetched more than S$2500 and S$2000 respectively.

My other modern era Specimen Notes.........

(ex-Spinks Singapore, 24th June 2000)

 

To add closure to this article, the thief was finally caught a few months later and sentenced to 18 months imprisonment and in mitigation he said he was tempted and thought that he could use the money.

The Day That Thousands Found Their Money Worthless! ~ Banana Money

This article appeared in the local newspaper on the 10th October 1965, some twenty odd years after the Japanese Surrender, depicting the anxiety of the peoples' monetary issue.

(Extracts from The Straits Times)

(from my personal collection)

Between late 1944 or early 1945 the British Forces began airdropping these propaganda leaflets, using the face of the $10 banana note of the Japanese Invasion money as its design, informing the public of the abrogation of the banana money.

This piece with serial numbers is from the First Series of Banana Note issued by  Yokohama Specie Bank around early 1942 .

Subsequently, around September 1942 the Second Series were issued and they do not have any serial numbers at all.

When first issued these were on par with the then $1Straits Dollar but towards the end of the war $240,000 banana money was the exchange price for $1 Straits Dollar.

Something odd happened in May 1946.......................................................................

This article was extracted from the Straits Times dated 24th May 1946.

Could anyone enlighten us why the Malayan Union were selling these worthless notes to the public again just nine months after the Japanese Surrender.

I wonder how many banana notes can be bought for $100 Malayan currency?

Do they include the serial numbered ones as well as the propaganda notes?

Well, if you had bought some and hopefully it includes the propaganda notes..............then you may be in the money, so to speak!

In an internet auction of June 2003, a similar $10 propaganda note shown above fetched a price of US$510.00 for a EF grade and at a recent auction 5pcs of the serial numbered $10 banana notes in fine to good fine grades were sold for US$100.00!

WORTHLESS????

$25 banknote.............Beautiful but Odd???

Considered one of the most beautiful and odd banknote ever issued by the Board of Commissioner of Currency, Singapore  on 7th August 1972.

The note was introduced to meet a need for an intermediate denomination between the $10 and $50 note. Sadly, it was to be withdrawn some years later because of its odd denomination. :(

Why odd, you may asked.....................

The first prefix number and with a slightly offset numeral.

                                                   A replacement note

                                  The so called "Yellow Paper" Variety type.

Thick & Thin Signature Variety

.........................................probably because a certain group of people had difficulty in doing mental arithmetic when confronted with this denomination.

                                    Do you fall under this group?

             A simple test............... :p  What is 25.00 minus 17.75.................

     Hmmm...how many seconds or minutes did you take to get the correct answer?

During my NS days in the 70's, our salaries were paid in cash and with this denomination.......Guess what? The pay officer handed us 5pcs and said this equals to One Hundred Dollars and continued doing so, even when we told him that it was incorrect.Finally after paying off a few of us did he realised his mistake, and had to make us return the money...........

If you are that officer reading this...............have a good laugh and Thank God you could ROD as an officer!

Did you notice.............there is an absence of the name of the Orchid on the note. An article in The Straits Times dated 1st February 1973 mentioned it. After that, I think someone in BCCS woke up and Wham! all other series notes issued have their relevant bird, ship and even portrait names printed.

Certain Extracts from The Straits Times)

$25 Orchid name: Renanthopsis Aurora