Rare Malayan $1,000 note set to steal thunder at auction

 

The special $1,000 note that will be the centre of attraction during the numismatic auction at the end of this week.

KUALA LUMPUR: A special Malayan $1,000 note from 1959 which was never issued is set to be the “gem” of a four-day numismatic auction to be held here from Jan 7.

Hann Boom.

“It is an extremely rare tangible heritage piece of history. This is a gem as it is the only one available in the world,” says auctioneer Hann Boom whose company is organising the event. “This note was designed near the end of the colonial period, but was not approved to be issued.”

The note was commissioned in 1959 by the Board of Commissioners of Currency of Malaya and British Borneo and is of archival photographic proof quality, Boom told FMT.

Another major attraction at the auction will be an extremely rare $1 Sarawak note printed in 1919 which was in circulation only briefly when the state issued its own notes.

The 102-year-old Sarawak $1 note that went for RM180,000 at the last auction.

“At the top left of the note is a portrait of Charles Vyner Brooke, who was the last White Rajah of Sarawak. A similar note fetched RM180,000 in the previous auction.”

A three-day numismatic fair will be held prior to the auction, and several hundred enthusiasts from the region will be there to assess the available notes and coins.

The last auction in November raised RM8 million. Among the top bids were a 1929 Sarawak $25 note which went for RM212,400 while a 1940 Malayan $1 note issued during the British administration was sold for RM188,800. - FMT