170. GC Designer's Initial for Geoffrey Colley, Designer of Malaysia Coin First Series

image 1: Designer's Initial close-up view

For some weeks I spend my time doing research in Material Science Lab.

And while doing it, I captured this GC for those who have sight problems in seeing these tiny initials.

This GC stands for Geoffrey Colley, the designer who designed the first series of Malaysian coins, famously know as Parliament Series. This GC is not a mint mark as suggested by a local catalogue, but is a Designer's Initial.

This image was taken via a microscope using 50 times magnification, the lowest magnification available. A 20 sen coin dated 1971 in UNC condition was used to capture this lovely designer's initial.

169. 20 sen 2006 wrong planchet error 20 sen struck on 10 sen planchet

image 1: obverse and reverse of the coin 

image 2: obverse of the coin

image 3: reverse of the coin

Hi everyone, happy weekends and Merry Christmas to those who celebrates it.

My latest catch on error coin, which dug a considerable big hole in my tiny student pocket is this Wrong Planchet Error coin.

This is a wrong planchet error coin which the 20 sen dies were used to struck a planchet of 10 sen.

The size and weight of this specimen is exactly the same as the normal 10 sen planchet. The measurement that I took on this coin showed that this specimen is thinner than usual 10 sen coin. This is probably due to nonexistence of the rims. And one more perhaps the pressure used by 20 sen dies were higher than 10 sen dies set, hence makes the coin thinner than usual.

On how to differentiate between a genuine wrong planchet error and a fake one, we can analyse the legends near the rim area. Due to the nonexistence of the collar die set which is supposedly to hold the edge, the legends near the rim will exhibit a fishtailing characteristics. This fishtailing occurs due to no normal force from the collar die, thus a solid legends failed to be formed.

In this specimen, fishtailing is obvious on legend "BANK NEGARA MALAYSIA" especially on the N of NEGARA.

168. 10 sen 2007 Doubled Die Reverse (DDR) Class V - Pivoted Hub Doubling

image 1: obverse and reverse of the coin

image 2: reverse of the coin

image 3: progression of doubling magnitude along the rim on reverse

My constant look out for weird coins landed this monster into my palm. I am still now still in disbelief that I have acquired the mother of the doubled die coins of Malaysia.

The first time I know that this DDR exists is when I stumbled upon an article from NUMISMASTER.COM.

http://www.numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ad=article&ArticleId=5029

It is quite amazing and proud to see a Malaysian variety coin appeared in a well-known US coin collector website. It is found out that the first known of this DDR now reside in Hawaii, far away from her motherland. She flied to Hawaii across the Pacific Ocean! To such extent the elusiveness of this coin can be said.

In my attempt to recognize the type of this doubled die, I think this is a Type V - Pivoted Hub Doubling Doubled Die.


This type of doubling occurs due to working hub is not properly aligned with the working die. This type of doubling is quite similar with Class 1 (Rotated Hub Doubling), but the pivot point is located somewhere around the rim. Thus, doubling magnitude is not the same along the rim.

The doubling is strongest on one side (in this case, left side of reverse), with little or no doubling on the opposite side of the coin (right side of reverse, see 7 of 07 and A of MALAYSIA). The doubling will increase as you travel around the rim of the coin until you come to the widest doubling. From this point on, the doubling starts to decrease until you return to the starting point with no doubling. This point of no doubling is called pivot point. The pivot point of this coin is found at 3.30 o'clock at the reverse.

And the doubling is in counter clockwise direction.

These two photos are for you to enjoy! Sorry for the low quality photos as I used a scanner, need a proper camera to capture her beauty!

image 4: the strongest doubling, N-N

image 5: the most obvious doubling, 20-20