A collector from up north sent me an interesting banknote to grade. It is an 11th series Malaysia 1 Ringgit note, signed by BNM Governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz. A first glance it does look like a very uncirculated piece with very good eye appeal.
A Malaysia 11th Series 1 Ringgit Misaligned Cutting Error (MisCut), or is it?
A collector from up north sent me an interesting banknote to grade. It is an 11th series Malaysia 1 Ringgit note, signed by BNM Governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz. A first glance it does look like a very uncirculated piece with very good eye appeal.
The Malaysia 12th Series 10 Ringgit Black Rafflesia : The Controversy & The Facts
The past 2 days has seen a lot of sudden buzz around the Malaysia 12th series 10 Ringgit banknote that has a different color Rafflesia on the reverse. This interesting event was triggered by Dickson Niew's blog article. Dickson, the prolific numismatist cum blogger (Did I get that right Dickson?) provides an interesting insight into the origins of the mysterious "Black Rafflesia", commonly referred to as the "BR" note in social media circles. The article can be found here.
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| The note in question .... |
This note has been a subject of much discussion on local social media groups on numismatics since the second half of 2014. Much of the controversy revolves around the issue on whether it is a genuine piece or a "post-mint-job".
Top 10 Questions about alphaNumis Banknote Grading Service
We have received quite a number of calls and emails recently on how to submit banknotes to alphaNumis to grade and encapsulate. We think it will be better if we explain the process in a bit more detail, in the form of a Q&A in our blog so that you can get a better picture how it's done.
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| Figure 1 : alphaNumis Graded banknote |
Déjà vu?
Déjà vu [French]
definition : literally "already seen", is the phenomenon of having the strong sensation that an event or experience currently being experienced has been experienced in the past, whether it has actually happened or not. (Source : Wikipedia.org)
The Basics and Origins of Grading
Grading is part and parcel of collecting as much as exams are part of studying; and yet there many collectors feel that grading is something best left to the experts or numismatists. Let me assure you that nothing can be further from the truth.
We grade things in our daily lives – from picking the right fruit at the grocery store, to checking out that used car, right up to our life partners! Grading is the process of determining the condition and therefore value of something and subsequently deciding on how much of resource e.g. time and money that you want to invest in it.
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| Fig1. Dr. William H Sheldon (Source : LIFE) |
World War II JIM - Malaya Japanese Propaganda Note
Some people call it a "note", perhaps in reference to the short form for the term "banknote". If it is, then it is technically incorrect.
Before we get into the technical details, let's go back 70 years, Malaya was then under Japanese occupation since late 1941 / early 1942. By 1944/45 the tide was turning against the Japanese and toward the end of the war, sometime between 1944 and 1945, the Royal Air Force (British) started airdropping these pieces of paper as part of the psychological warfare initiative.
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| Fig 1 : Suspicious looking propaganda leaflet (Obverse) |
A brief analysis of BNM's inaugural auction on 27 Sep 2014
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.
BNM Auction of Malaysian Banknotes with Special Serial Numbers - 27 Sep 2014
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.
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| Fig 1: Escalator going down to the auditorium |
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| Fig 2. Crowd building up.... |
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| Fig 3. Registration counters were packed. |
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| 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.
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| Fig 5. Guess who's here? |
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| 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.
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| Fig 7. The atmosphere of the grand looking hall. |
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| Fig 8. Very spacious hall at audio was good and clear. |
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| Fig 9. Waiting for the bidding to start. |
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| Fig 10. And so it begins .... |
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| Fig 11. Bidding went on for hours. |
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| Fig 12. Good turnout. |
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.
Happy Collecting Folks!
Paper Money & Banknote Errors
The error coin collecting space is a well established one, with many leading Malaysian and overseas numismatist specializing in identifying, classifying and dealing with error coins. There are many books published in this area as well, a sign of the maturity of this subject matter.
However, the same can't be said about collecting error banknotes. I have not encountered many collectors in this space - perhaps some of you readers out there can introduce me to these collectors! Books on errors notes are also hard to find. I have been very interested in this area - a cross over from studying die variety and error coins for my Diploma in Numismatics.
I do hope to develop this area further by researching and interviewing fellow collectors, as well as sharing what I have discovered here in Numismatica. My plan is to publish several blog articles in the definition and classification of types of errors and varieties of error notes. Of course, I do welcome suggestions on other topics to cover.
So if anyone of you out there who are into collecting error notes, do contact me at alphanumis@gmail.com.
Thank you!
Just what is “Market Price”?
There has been much frenzy and debate over a Malaysian 50 cent coin from 1969 with milled edge that was graded by NGC at AU55 being auctioned off in Singapore for a whopping RM10,253 on 19 October 2013. Ever since news of this broke, I had people coming to me saying that they have that 1969 50 cent coin to sell and asking me how much I am willing to offer.
And of course my response was that the price offered is highly dependent on the type, variety, condition/grade of the coin. The grade of the coin is in turn dependent on the big 4 major factors i.e. luster, contact marks, strike and eye appeal. But that’s not the point of this article; I will save the grading part for another day.
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