Back in mid April 2017, I was contacted by an official from Bank Negara Malaysia (the Malaysian Central Bank). The call was from none other than the curator of the Numismatic Museum of Bank Negara himself, inviting me to conduct a seminar on numismatic grading. Of course I agreed to do it without any hesitation whatsoever! Mainly because it is indeed an honor and privilege to receive such an invitation from the best numismatic museum in the country! The event was scheduled for 20 May 2017, 2:30 p.m. at the auditorium at Sasana Kijang, Kuala Lumpur and the duration is expected to be 2 hours. With about 6 weeks to go I immediately set about preparing the content of the seminar.
For a start - why talk about numismatic grading and not any other topics? For most people numismatic grading equals to graded coins or banknotes stored in slabs of plastic with the grading company logo and a number between 1 to 70 indicating the grade. But grading is much more than just a number, it is a important aspect in determining the value of the collectible that every collector and numismatist must learn and understand. Failure to do so will increase the risk of overpaying for something, especially when acquiring ungraded / "unslabbed" items.
Fig 2. Opening slide for the seminar
The main objective of the seminar was to provide a high level view of the numismatic grading and its origins, while trying to keep the technical aspects of it at a minimum - which many perceive to be difficult to learn. It is hoped that attendees will come away from the seminar being able to make sense of grading and what it means to the collector.
Fig 3 : Grading a coin ....
Fig 4 : Relationship between grade and value
Fig. 5 : BNM's invitation letter & momento.
Fig. 6 : The very "rare" Asia School of Business commemorative silver coin
(Although not officially stated I have been told that there are only 100 minted)
Fig. 7 : The reverse of the commemorative coin
With a total of 126 presentation slides, packed with vital information, the seminar did generate some interest in grading, resulting in a question and answer session which lasted more than 1 hour. We wish to record our thanks and appreciation to Bank Negara Malaysia Numismatic Museum for organizing such an event that promote the hobby of numismatics. It is indeed a honour to be amongst the select few who has been invited to speak at the MAG Theatre of Sasana Kijang.
Fig. 9: Technical specifications for the Asia School of Business (ASB) Commemorative silver coin 2016.
Fig 8. Logo of ASB. Source : http://www.asb.edu.my/
To top off this honour, I was presented with a momento from BNM as a token of appreciation - and much to my surprise it turned out to be the much sought after "Asia School of Business" commemorative silver coin. This coin was never issued to the public, which makes it difficult to obtain for the average collector. While not officially stated, I have been told that only 100 of these coins were minted. It was released on 23rd February 2016 to coincide with the ground breaking ceremony for the new campus building that was officiated by our then BNM Governor Tan Sri Dr. Zeti Akhtar Aziz. The Asia School of Business is a collaboration between BNM and MIT Sloan School of Business, one of the top business schools in the United States.
The Asia School of Business offers Master in Business Administration (MBA) courses here in Kuala Lumpur - being one of the top schools in the world, its fee is certainlynot cheap! This world class 20 month full time course will set you back by RM265,000 for Malaysian students and RM365,000 (USD85,000) for international students.
The official press release from BNM for the ground breaking event can be found here.
And of course it does not end here, we are planning for more seminars in the near future. The new seminars will be announced via our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/alphanumis
Banknotes are something that we use everyday of our lives and yet 99.9% of us do not pay much attention when we take them out of our wallets or purse and handing them over to the cashier. As our newly appointed BNM Governor aptly puts it in his opening speech today, the ONLY time we ever pay attention to the banknotes is when the cashier hands it back to us and telling us it is not acceptable, for whatever reasons! Of course we the numismatists and collectors are the exception!
Which brings us to the main purpose of this 4 month long exhibition, which is to create awareness in the general public that that paper money are essentially works of art. Did you know that the picture of Mount Kinabalu at the back of RM1 and RM100 are hand painted first before being transferred to the printing plates and printed? There is a lot of work and money, pun intended, put into printing these bits of paper in your wallet and they are produced at such a high level of consistency that the ONLY way you can tell a difference between two RM100 notes is by their serial number!
Fig 1 : Tan Sri Dato' Sri Dr. Zeti Akhtar Aziz. [Source : globalaccessibilitynews.com]
Malaysians can look forward to having a new central bank governor in less than 30 days' time. The
current governor Tan Sri Dato' Sri Dr. Zeti Akhtar Aziz, the 7th in line since the central bank was established in 1959; will be stepping down by end of March 2016 when her contract expires.
With 16 years at the helm, she is the longest serving BNM Governor yet. She is also the first woman to be appointed for this prestigious but challenging job. To her credit she was won many accolades, awards and recognition from renowned international organizations such as EuroMoney, University of Pennsylvannia (Wharton) just to name a few. In 2011 Bloomberg reported that she was considered as a potential candidate for the International Monetary Fund (IMF). If anything, she has put Malaysia on the financial services industry map.
Fake AAH Signature on the side/vertical on 1 Ringgit note
Almost all of Malaysian banknote collectors know that there is only one version of the 1 Ringgit Ali Abul Hassan (commonly referred to as AAH) signed notes i.e. the one with the signature is a center of the obverse and the only prefix for this is none other than the famous "CR" prefix.
Then one fine day, someone showed me the much-talked-about but never seen side/vertically signed note, which is quite interesting because my good friend LUNATICG happen to mention that in his blog article titled "Top 10 Myths in Malaysian Numismatics". This "phantom" piece is listed at item #4. The most astonishing part is that someone allegedly paid RM15,000 (about USD4,000) for that piece. However, there were no photos of that piece shown in the article.
Now I am not at all sure if this piece that appeared before me is that very same piece or if it is even produced by the same "counterfeiter"* (a special heartfelt thanks to Eryclunk Numismatic (FB name) for showing me this); but it is far too interesting to let it go without taking a closer look at it!
* Technically speaking this is not a counterfeit because the banknote itself it genuine. It is an "alteration" made to it so that it will fetch a higher market value.
Almost exactly 6 months after its inaugural auction of banknotes with special serial numbers, the much anticipated auction was held today at the same venue, Sasana Kijang in Kuala Lumpur.
This time there was 178 lots up for grabs, compared to 231 for the first auction (53 lots or 23% difference). The buyer's premium is at 15%. The official schedule :
8:30 am Registration Starts
10:30 am Session 1 - RM1, RM10 and RM50
1:30 pm Session 2 - RM5, RM20, RM100
The auction did start at 10:30am this time around, registration was comparatively smoother than last time, mainly because the crowd was not as big as the first time and also perhaps people know what to expect already.
This is a quick run down on the statistics and a brief analysis of the BNM auction yesterday. The are base on the UNOFFICIAL results of the auction. I do hope MNP will publish the realized prices soon so that further analysis can be done.
The much anticipated numismatic event of the year has finally arrived. As I made my way to Sasana Kijang in downtown Kuala Lumpur, there are many thoughts about how the event will turn out and how it will affect the local numismatic market. There has been much buzz on social media sites and many will turn up at the event - either to bid for the items or to just sit on the sidelines and enjoy the show. Which ever way it goes, I think it is going to be a very crowded.
From what I know, and do correct me if I am wrong, such an event is unprecedented; as in our central bank is, for the very first time, running such an auction. The event is conducted by MNP Auctioneers (based in Penang, with office in downtown KL) at the auditorium of Sasana Kijang. The buyers' premium is quite reasonable - at 15% of the hammer price and there are 231 lots up for grabs.
As I arrived just after 9:00am and made my way down the escalator to the foyer of the auditorium, you can already hear the noise. People are already queuing up to register.
Fig 1: Escalator going down to the auditorium
Fig 2. Crowd building up....
Fig 3. Registration counters were packed.
Fig 4. Waiting for their number cards.
As I reached the foyer, I could immediately see all the familiar faces, just about every personality and dealer in the numismatic scene are there; from Steven Tan to Raymond Chang to KN Boon. Folks from the Malaysian Numismatic Society like Dickson Niew were there too. We even have collectors coming from down south, as in from Johor and Singapore, some from the north of the peninsular as well. I did not, however, encounter anyone from Hong Kong or China, which according to some will be here as well.
There was a lot of catching up to do, after all, no where in this country you can find all the dealers and collectors all in the same place at the same time ! I said many hellos to people whom I know and chatted with for hours on Facebook Messenger but have NEVER met them in person.
Fig 5. Guess who's here?
Fig 6. Can't touch this!
According to the itinerary, registration will be from 9:00am onwards and bidding is expected to begin at 10:00am. Due to the overwhelming crowd, the registration took a bit longer and bidding finally got underway at 11:00am. As I entered the auditorium, I took a rough calculation and my estimate that there there are about 250 to 300 people at the start of the session, this is the probably the biggest numismatic auction in this country yet.
Fig 7. The atmosphere of the grand looking hall.
Fig 8. Very spacious hall at audio was good and clear.
Fig 9. Waiting for the bidding to start.
Fig 10. And so it begins ....
Fig 11. Bidding went on for hours.
Fig 12. Good turnout.
The first lot up for grabs was RM1 AB Prefix with numbers AB0000001-10 with an indicative price of only RM200. Now this first lot was a BIG shocker, it came in at RM5,700 ! Subsequent similar lots settled at about RM3,500 to RM4,800 range. This took everyone in the room by surprise, there were gasps and claps at the same time. Amazing.
The next big thing was Lot 61 RM5 AA6666666, that piece comes with a frame and it got bidded up to RM16,000. Unbelievable. Considering that the rest of RM5 pieces were doing RM2000 to RM3000+.
Fast forward to 2:00pm, we are still at Lot 77, only one third of the way thru. At this rate, my calculations show that this should finish at about 8:00pm.I couldn't stay any longer and had to leave for my next appointment, after all according to the itinerary, it was suppose to finish at 2:00pm.
The prices are just incredible - for low serials, at least 10 times the catalog prices.
As I made my way out, I could see that some people have already left, perhaps disappointed that they could not get any of the lots at their target prices. I left the place thinking about what will be the subsequent impact of these new high prices of special serial number banknotes ....
I'll be back with my thoughts and some analysis of this momentous event. I will try to get the realized prices tonight and run thru them.
Stay tuned!
P.S. In the meantime, get ready to answer a barrage of questions from your brothers, sisters, wife or wives, aunties, uncles, grandmas, grandpas, colleagues, friends, your insurance agent, car mechanic, right up to your hairdresser about what is their nice number banknote is worth and whether you want to buy or not. Expect this to be inflicted upon you for a minimum of 6 months.
