MALAYSIA COIN STORY:MALAYSIA FIRST ISSUE OF COINAGE (12-6-1967)

Who Chose The Design Of The Parliament Building?

A national competition was held in February 1966 to choose a set of five designs for the new coins.


Trial Pattern Coins
A set of ten (10) pieces unissued,unrecorded uniface trial pattern coins which were  intended for general circulation prior to the Bank Negara Malaysia issue:
  1 Sen.Obverse.Big Nose Monkey.
  1 Sen.Obverse.Stock.
  5 Sen.Obverse.Elephant Ant-eater.
10 Sen.Obverse.Armadillo.
20 Sen.Obverse.Mousedeer with tall lallang background.
20 Sen.Obverse.Mousedeer with hill and lallang background (improve version).
20 Sen.Obverse.Mousedeer on the hill.
50 Sen.Obverse.Peacock.
10 Sen.Reverse.1967 Double-hibiscus Rosettes same as current issue.
10 Sen.Reverse.1967 Single-hibiscus Rosettes.

A set of designs featuring proboscis monkey (big nose monkey),the Malayan tapir,the pangolin (Armadillo),the kijang (Mousedeer) and the Argus Pheasant (Peacock) were chosen.Some proofs were minted at Royal Mint in England.

When the Governor Tun Ismail showed these set of sample coins to the Prime Minister,Tunku Abdul Rahman,Tunku said,"No,this won't do. People will think we eat them.Why not have the picture of the Parliament building on the coins,since we're a parliamentary democracy?",he suggested. This is how the Parliament building came to be on the coins.
When it came to designing the coin,this posed some difficulties.The shape of the design is such that it left a lot of empty space.So a crescent moon and a star were added to balance it.

The Malaysia first issue of coinage was released on 12th.June.1967.Five denominations i.e.One (1)Cent on copper planchet,Five (5)Cents,Ten (10)Cents,Twenty (20) Cents and Fifty (50) Cents on cupro-nickel.All five denominations bearing a common design.

The obverse of the coins featured the Parliament House of Malaysia,symbolising Malaysia's faith in democracy,a crescent moon symbolising Islam the official religion of the country and 13 pointed star representing Malaysia and her 13 component states.

The reverse depicts a stylised design representing the hibiscus (the national flower) and bears the denomination,the world "MALAYSIA" and the year 1967.

8 comments:

  1. ouh, like that...
    History...I knew now, TQ Dickson.

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  2. Hi Dickson,
    Interesting article.
    Never knew it was chosen that way until we read it here.
    Thanks alot for sharing :)

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  3. Dear Whycollect,this was reported in a book publised by BNM.I read it two years ago.

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  4. May I know how much is it for selling".??

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  5. Dear Sifu Dickson

    May I know if you are selling it because I am interested to buy.

    Thank you

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  6. Hi Anonymous,
    I do not have this ultra rare set.It belonged to Maybank Money Museum and another set is now in Singapore.

    ReplyDelete