Sunday 17 May 2009

Straits Settlements currency notes

The other day, when I was writing briefly about the historical figures on some of the Asian currency notes, I remembered that I do have a small collection of old Straits Settlements and Malayan currency notes in various denominations. They were among my father's collection of currency notes and stamps, and they were pretty interesting.

A pack of 10 one cent currency notes issued during the time of George VI.
They were all peinted just as war clouds began to hover over the Malay peninsula.
But, as I understand it, they were only issued in Malayafter the end of the Second World War in 1945. They replaced the worthless Japanese banana notes.
But the interesting point was that these were 1-cent, 5-cent, 10-cent, 20-cent and 50-cent notes and not coins. And all of them were not serial numbered. These only came with the higher denomination notes.
Like this one ... a more familiar piece: a 1-dollar currency note
The oldest currency note in my possession: a one-dollar note dating back to 1930.
After George VI, it was now the face of Elizabeth II on the Malayan currency notes.

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