Niewmismatic Error Coins

Malaysia Commemorative Gold Coin Specimen.

Rarity: Unique.


Mr. Lee, my good friend and a very serious collector of coins and banknotes, showed me a piece Malaysia 1977, 9th South East Asia Games RM200 Commemorative Gold coin specimen. It was minted by Franklin Mint USA.

He told me he bought this gold coin specimen from a friend who got it from USA.


It was packed in a blue card, issued in 1977,with 12,000 pieces in mintage,weight at 7.22gm with width of 25.24mm in diameter,1.30mm in thickness.

Obverse printed with "Malaysia 200 Ringgit Gold Coin" on the top and wordings of "Brilliant Uncirculated Specimen" at the bottom.


On the reverse, it mentioned that this coin was "Minted At The Franklin Mint" and was "Made In USA".

I was puzzled why this normal struck gold coin was labelled as specimen gold coin and it was sold openly in USA.

Could it be these were the over-run production in Franklin Mint and labelled as "specimen" and cleared as stock lots in the USA open market?

We do encountered a similar scenario on the Malaysia 1980 "Proof Set Of 9", a total of 5,000 sets was minted by Franklin Mint of USA in Malay language prescription but a lot more of Malaysia "Proof Set Of 9" in English prescription was sold in USA open market.


Malaysia commemorative coins minted by Franklin Mint USA ended at 1981 4th Malaysia Plan's commemorative coins.Since then, Bank Negara Malaysia has never use their service again.