17. Malaysia 20 Cents Error Blank Planchet

photo: Malaysia 20 cent blank planchet

   I bought this piece of error coin two years ago with price of RM10 from a McDonalds franchise manager. He told me that he got a lot of foreign coins in their McDonalds donation box and this coin was one of them. Even he found a Half Cent of Queen Victoria inside the donation box. I wonder if Singaporeans really had foreign coins inside their wallet. Usually they will take only banknotes for donations purpose and the coins will be used for their changes. That is quite not honest. Then, he as the manager will filter the coins by taking out foreign coins.

    The dimension and weight of this coin match the dimension and weight of Malaysia 20 cent. If this error coin is genuine, this is categorized under the blank coin type. There are many types of error coins, such as double strike, wrong planchet, off centering, low strike, off strike, mirror strike and others. From my survey at the Internet, blank coin error coins are the easiest to find compare to other types.

   There are two types of blank coins. The first type is without raised rim on it. In this case, the coin is better called as blank coin, as it never involved in any of the coin minting processes. For the second part is with raised rim on it,blank planchet. A planchet is a blank coin that is ready to be stamped by an engraved die. I think my coin here has raised rim on it. The raised rim on the blank planchet means that the coin has undergone at least one process of coin minting, which is softening process. I think softening process soften the surface of the coins to ease the stamping process later.There is probability the blank planchet escape the pressing section and then bagged for circulation.

   Counterfeiting exist easily because blank coins are easy to copy and produce. There are few tips on how to differentiate between a genuine and a fake one. First, if the blank coins has milled/reeded edge, most probably it is fake, because milling of the edge and stamping usually occur simultaneously for conventional minting. By the way, one of the objectives of reeded edge is to avoid counterfeiting. Second one, usually blank planchet has smooth and shining surfaces. If the surface is rough, maybe someone had sanded and polished the surface of the coin.

  What do you think of my coin here?

16. Straits Settlements Half Cent 1916 Coin

photo: Straits Settlement Half Cent 1916

   I like fractional denomination coins. Most of people nowadays do not know long time ago even half of a cent can buy thing, what more quarter cent. What did they buy at a price of half cent in 1916?

   Even the 1 cent coin is demonetised nowadays.Can you think of an item, the cheapest item in the world that you can buy with a face-value of the coin above?

15. Singapore Merchant Coin Satu Keping 1831 1832

photo: reverse and obverse of the coin

   This coin is a gift from my friend, Kamsar. On the reverse of the coin is a fighting cock, with legend in Jawi "tanah melayu" means "the land of Malays". On the obverse is "Satu Keping 1247".

   When I was referring to the Saran Singh's book, I get confused which one is my coin because there are so many fighting coin varieties and types. Some of them are differentiated according to the tail of the cock. Some have bushy tail, some have tail hanging down straight, curl, etc.But I think most likely this coin is categorized under SS26.

   Made of copper, this coin is having diameter of 21 mm. It was minted in Soho, Birmingham and circulated in trade region in some parts of Singapore, Malacca, Sumatera Island and for sure Sabah, as I got this coin from Sabah.

   reference: http://www.zeno.ru/showphoto.php?photo=26121

14. Malaya Japanese Occupation Definitive

  Hi all. I'm just sharing and republish the Japanese Occupation stamps together with their other siblings.7 brothers still MIA.

13. Malaya Japanese Occupation Definitive Series 3 Cent

     Hi all. I have here  a piece of Japanese stamp, that was used in Malaya during the Japanese Occupation. This stamp was issued in Selangor in 1943. The whole set consists of 10 pieces; 1 cent, 2 cent, 3 cent, 4 cent, 8 cent, 10 cent, 15 cent, 30 cent, 50 cent and 70 cent. 7 pieces left to complete my set.

    The stamp shows a rubber tapper (maybe an Indian based on his skin color) in a rubber plantation. If this stamp was imported from Japan, do they designed this stamp specifically for Malaya? or Japan also did plant rubber?

   Rubber, until now, is very synonym to Malaysia as rubber used to be our major export. Do not sure about the current situation. My grandfather used to have a decent-size rubber plantation, and income from rubber-tapping made my grandfather among the rich guy at our kampung. My father told me, when he was 12 years old, the whole kampung used to gather at our house just to watch television together. During that time, television is a kind of luxury.

    My grandfather was a rubber tapper once, before he went to government service. My father also did rubber tapping, even during his teenage years to support his 13-siblings family. I still remember my father had shown me a big scar in his arm due to rubber-tapping blade. Unfortunately, I have escaped the rubber-tapping chain. I am quite sad that I do not know how to rubber-tap. Have you try rubber-tapping before?

12. Myanmar 25 Pya and 10 Pya 1969

     If someone ask me, why do I collect coins and banknotes? This is one of answers that I have in my mind. It helps me to make new friends. Especially on those who come from other countries. I feel blessed that I am studying in university that have a lot of international students.

    I always take the opportunities to talk with international students here. Apart from to increase my language proficiency, I also seek to acquire their coins/banknotes. Most of the time it was them who were being excited the most. I am quite in shock to see they suddenly grabbed and checked their luggage bags to show their country's banknotes or coins to me.

   These are gifts from my friend, Salman and Alieq. I had a long lecture from them about their currency. It is really interesting to me and I will post about it later. They also showed me a wonderful fullset of current Myanmar banknotes, in EF-UNC condition. I will try to ask them to give it to me.  Have you had any experience making friends from our hobby?

photo: 25 Pya

photo: 1969 10 pyas

11. Collecting Coins

       For coins collector out there, what do you do with your collection? Have you try this one? I suggest you try it if you do not have time to improve your collection or don't have money to buy new coins ( as in my case ). Just watch it and enjoy the art of "coins collecting".