Fake error note : Malaya British Borneo 1961 10 Dollars

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One thing about collecting error notes is that it is fraud with many dangers. We had one such case recently.  A collector who recently acquired a piece of famous "kerbau" 10 Dollar error note ("kerbau" is Malay for buffalo) and he asked me to take a closer look at it and let him know what I think. Here's the high resolution scan  :

Figure 1 : Malaya British Borneo 10 Dollars 1 March 1961, Pick #9

The bottom right serial number appears to have been over printed i.e. the "9" has been over printed with a "0".

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Re-grading aN Graded Notes at PMG

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It's bound to happen. It is only a matter of time.

Late last year, a collector acquired 2 pieces of banknotes graded by alphaNumis decided to cut them out from the plastic slab and send it to PMG for grading, just to compare our grading skills/competency, which in our honest opinion, is a good thing. As consumers, people have every right to compare products and services. As a service provider, it's good feedback and opportunity to learn and improve.

Fig 1. PMG graded this piece at 55, same as aN grading. (Photos from Straits Settlements Shop)

The notes in question are Malaya 1 dollar from 1941, with King George VI. They were graded AU55 and EF40 respectively by alphaNumis. The result of the grading came back earlier this year and below are the photos posted by the collector, Andrew Chan, at his blogsite. You can read this piece on the grading here.

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BNM Second Auction of Malaysian Banknotes with Special Serial Numbers 29 Mar 2015

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Fig .1 Catalog cover of the second auction.

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.

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A Malaysia 11th Series 1 Ringgit Misaligned Cutting Error (MisCut), or is it?

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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.

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The Malaysia 12th Series 10 Ringgit Black Rafflesia : The Controversy & The Facts

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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.

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".

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Top 10 Questions about alphaNumis Banknote Grading Service

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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.

Figure 1 : alphaNumis Graded banknote

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Déjà vu?

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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)

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The Basics and Origins of Grading

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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.

Fig1. Dr. William H Sheldon (Source : LIFE)

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World War II JIM - Malaya Japanese Propaganda Note

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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.

Fig 1 : Suspicious looking propaganda leaflet (Obverse)

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A brief analysis of BNM's inaugural auction on 27 Sep 2014

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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.

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