My Prized Goh Keng Swee Orchid Series Banknotes Collection

After gaining independence on 9th August 1965, the Singapore Government decided to issue her own banknotes and the Orchid series is the first amongst the Bird, Ship, I.T. and Portrait ones.

The series signed by the late Dr Goh Keng Swee was issued on 19th January 1970 and only in $1, $5, $10, $50, $100 and $1000 denominations.Only a small quantity of his signed banknotes were issued,thus making the Orchid series banknotes signed by him as the most sought after and valuable among all Singapore issued banknotes.



  An UNC foxing $1 note with Unique serial numbers.

       

Almost a consecutive pair of $1 note with a small error smudge on one of the Orchids.

Can you spot it? Refer to my earlier blog for details.

The MOST sought after and very valuable of all the Dr Goh Keng Swee signed Orchid series banknote, may even be for the overall series of banknotes issued by the Singapore Government.......................the infamous $5.00 denomination:

Can you notice that all three signatures vary in the degree of thickness............you would probably have to enlarge the picture to view. Can these be considered as minor varieties? Any "gurus" wish to comment?

An uneventful consecutive $10.00, bought in the early 1980s for slightly higher than the face value of the pair........................sob! sob! should have bought more..............

 At the last local auction, a single UNC $50 piece was sold for S$480 excluding buyer's premium and taxes.

      Consecutive serial numbers printed withYellow banknote paper or is it even foxing?

Understand that the Dr Goh Keng Swee $100 is the second most sought after.

Another BOO BOO by the authorities, catalogers, etc?............ apparently it was published that the Goh Keng Swee $1000 banknotes bears his signature(of course! this is obvious.............or you will have had an error note) and his SEAL:





I have yet to see a GKS $1000 or a picture of it with his signature and seal .................anyone in possession of such a note or comments?

Singapore Orchid Series Currency Notes ~ Lim Kim San ~

The Board of Commissioners of Currency, Singapore and subsequently as Monetary Authority of Singapore has issued four series of currency notes for general circulation since 1967.
The currency notes of all the four series, known as the "Orchid", "Bird", "Ship" and "Portrait" series are legal tender.

The "Orchid" series has nine denominations; $1, $5, $10, $25, $50, $100, $500, $1,000 and $10,000.The dominant feature is a spray of orchid in the centre of the front of each note but missing is the name of the type of Orchid.Could this mistake of missing name be a 'Boo Boo' made by the then BCCS? (see an earlier blog story of the $25 "Orchid")

This series has varieties of signatures and seals of the then Minister for Finance  and Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of Currency, Singapore but not all nine denominations were issued with their signatures and seals.



The 'first' of the "Orchid" series has only six denominations and were issued with Mr Lim Kim San's signature on 12 June 1967.

The $1.00 denomination:
 

                                       Name of Orchid: Vanda Janet Kaneali
                                       Printer: Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co Ltd

                                                                      Reverse of note

               Notice any thing peculiar about the picture on the reverse of the note?

       
                                                       The whole scene is missing of people, vehicles and street lamps!          Another Boo Boo?




The $5.00 denomination:

Name of Orchid: Vanda T.M.A.

Printer: Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co Ltd

Reverse of note

Oh, why must the BCCS committee choose this controversial orchid to grace the $5.00 note............beats me!!

Apparently, the parent orchid has its fair share of controversy, involving allegations of mixed-up seedpods, confused parentage and faulty registration(refer: https://www.rv-orchidworks.com/orchidtalk/showthread.php?t=15491) 

Maybe that's the reason for not printing the name of the orchid on the banknote. Boo Boo again?

              The print of this note is slightly shifted towards the bottom margin of the note.

The $10.00 denomination:

                              Name of Orchid: Dendrobium Marjorie Ho "Tony Pek"
                                  Printer: Thomas De La Rue & Co Ltd

Reverse of note

               Currently the island of Singapore is about this shape, almost totally different from the days of 1967.

The $50.00 denomination:

                                    Name of Orchid: Vanda Rothscildiana "Teo Choo Hong"
                                              Printer: Thomas De La Rue & Co Ltd

Reverse of note

 

The $100.00 deniminaion:

                                                     Name of Orchid: Cattleya

                                         Printer: Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co Ltd



 

Singapore Bird Series ~ $50 & $100

Issued on 6th August 1976, this series has nine denominations as in the first except that the $20note(see earlier blog) was introduced to replace the $25 note of the 'Orchid' series.

Predominant Colour: Blue

Size: 157mmx 75mm        

                                                           Qty Printed: 148 million pieces

                                                           Printer: Thomas De La Rue & Co Ltd  

                                                             Issued on 1st February 1977.

                                                             Predominant Colour: Blue

                                                             Size: 165mm x 78mm
                                                             Qty Printed: 22.7 million pieces
                                                             Printer: Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co Ltd

The dominant feature is a bird on the left hand side of the front of each note. Birds are noted for their strength, adaptability and independence whch characterize the young Republic of Singapore with the potential to soar to greater heights in its progress.

On the front of the note is the Singapore Coat of Arms, lion's head watermark and the signature and seal of the then Minister of Finance and Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of Currency Singapore, Mr Hon Sui Sen. Incidently, the bird series do not have signature varities like it's precedessor the 'Orchid'.

An error note acquired decades back..................................................Can you spot the error?

 Another error note  with reverse wet ink overprint of the skyline and $50 numeral.

                                       The obverse view of the wet ink error note.


The following notes are replacement notes:

Note the different prefixes; Z/1 & Z/2, highly sought after as a set with identical serial numbers.....do you have any matching numbers? Contact me if you have.

               

   Regretfully, my one and only legal tender $100 piece, but with unique "triplet" serial number.

Singapore $20 Bird Series Concept to Actual



These two letters first appeared in the local newspaper, The Straits Times, around about mid December 1973 and it would take another 6 years before the actual note was issued into circulation.                                                     



10 December 1973



 



                  18 December 1973



About 6 years later.........................



extracted from The Straits Times dated 4 August 1979





extracted from Singapore MoneyBook



   The first series with a minor error.......slight over inking of the serial numbers "65" (enlarge to appreciate)