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".