Brunei $50 Begawan Series 1967

Yesterday, I managed to get two of the above notes. The Begawan Series or the 1967 Brunei First Modern Series is still a favourite among collectors. Issued in 1967, it marked the first time that Brunei issued its own currency by its own Currency Board. Prior to that, Brunei currency notes were issued by the Straits Settlements Government and the Malaya-Borneo Board of Currencies.

The $50 Begawan Series are rarely available in the numismatic shops. In Kuala Lumpur, an uncirculated note is being sold for around MYR800 and in Singapore for around S$400 and on eBay for around US$300. A used note depending on the condition would be slightly cheaper but not that much cheaper if it is very fine or very good.

I chanced upon these notes accidentally. One of our local food blogger recently emailed me telling me that she has recently came into possession of these notes. She asked whether she should deposit it into a bank. Anyway, I gave some pointers including the value of the notes and asked if she is selling some of the notes, can I also buy them. That was how I managed to acquire two of these notes to add to my collection.

So I would suggest for those of you who has older aunties etc who you think might be hoarding notes, to ask them nicely. They might think they are just sitting on notes worth the face value but not realising the value of those notes have indeed risen beyond their expectation.

One of my colleagues at the office was telling me this story when he asked one of his aunties. His auntie told him that she had plenty of paper notes but has deposited them in the local bank. She said that why don't they all go to the bank and take the notes out again. My friend laughed and told her that the bank will surely give back the amount of money she put in but she will never see the same paper notes that she had deposited in the bank. She certainly missed out on the increased valuation of those notes. Well, tell your auntie this story and tell me if you have any Brunei paper notes for sale.

Food on stamps

I spent my Sunday morning, drying my stamps out. I have been keeping all these used stamps cut out from envelopes all over the world sending my ebay purchases. One interesting stamp from Singapore was this set. I only received one of the four and it intrigued me to know about the stamps.

I found that particular stamp was one of 4 stamps of Singapore's local delight stamps. I also discovered that this stamp set was issued together with Macau. So there is also another set of Macau food and Macau stamp sets had two sets as well. Interesting.

I guess the other reason why this stamp is interesting is that I am now on a diet. So even photos of food on stamps looked fantastically nice to me!

Star Coin - Brunei 1886

This is the one coin that I will never get tired of. Everytime one of these babies come up on ebay, I buy it, well almost everytime. I have a price limit of around USD50 which is still a bid high compared to about B$45 which you can buy from the local dealers here.

This coin was part of a million coin minted in Edinburgh. Someone convinced Sultan Hashim that he needed a new coin by suggesting that he pay for the minting and he will take half of the mints. The British was appalled when the coins came into the market. As soon as the British ran the government from 1906, the first act was to ban all these coins.

United Arab Emirates 200 Dirham 2004

Happy New Year 2008! I do hope you enjoyed last year's postings of stamps and currency notes. This year I hope to do more and blog more often about stamps and currency notes which I have collected as well as the news about some of these.

I was happy last March when I got my 500 dirham note from United Arab Emirates. I was on the way back from Iran when we stopped by Dubai. I went up to the money changer and said I wanted a 500 dirham note, how much was it... Anyway when I got that 500 dirham note, I thought my UAE Dirham collection was complete. It was sometime last month when I discovered that UAE had 200 dirham and 1,000 dirham notes as well. Aargh...

Anyway, one of my wife's niece's husband was a pilot with RBA and I asked him when he will be flying out to London and to help me get those notes. Anyway he hasn't been flying to London lately but he had a 200 dirham in his wallet and I changed for that first. The 200 dirham was issued together with the 100 dirham in 2004. Here is the 200 dirham note for you to enjoy. I still want that 1,000 dirham note.

Iran 500 Riyal

I got this Iranian 500 Riyal note when I was in Iran in March this year when I attended the Asia-Pacific Housing Ministers meeting in Tehran. In fact I got the entire Islamic series as well as the Pahlavi series. I could not get the pre Pahlavi series as they were too expensive.

However this Islamic series is interesting. I don't think there is any other currency in the world showing a group of people praying be it Islamic or otherwise. Though this 500 Riyal note is not worth much as the Iranian currency has weakened since the days of the Shah of Iran.

Russia 500 Rubles 1997

Continuing my series of 500 unit notes of many countries. This 500 ruble note is from Russia. I was in Moscow in 2007 leading the Brunei MOF team negotiating for a treaty with Russia. That was the third round - the first two were in Brunei. I have to admit then I was not expecting to go to Moscow. Most times, I am able to complete a negotiation by two rounds at most but Russia was slightly different. Anyway, it gave me and my team a chance to visit Moscow and not that many people had that opportunity.

When we arrived at the hotel, there was not much hassle at the airport, our passports were taken from us. Russia has a policy where every visitor had to be registered and you cannot go out without your passport (most important rule). So for the next few hours while the hotel was arranging for our registration with the local authorities, we were holed up at the hotel. As soon as we got our passports back, we went out to see what Moscow was like.

Anyway, their currency was just like any other currency and the 5 pieces that I have are used notes which I saved up from the trip. This one is 500 rubles and the largest note then was 5000 rubles. I didn't remember buying much in Russia other than a nice carved wooden chess set from Ukraine or something. Moscow was full of buildings - old ones. But the most memorable was being taken on this ship cruising the Moscow River and to see the famous Russian ballet show. A visit to Moscow hold special memories.

Cambodia 500 Riel 1970

I found another old 500 note in my currency notes collection. This one is from Cambodia bought by my sisters when they went to Angkor Wat. I was once in Cambodia attending an ASEAN meeting but at that time, I was not into notes collection and I only used US Dollars there.

This particular 500 Riel note is quite old (around 1970) and no longer in use. But it had an interesting painting and not many countries have paintings on their currency notes. The interesting bit about Cambodia is that by 1975 when Khmer Rouge ran the country, the country did not use money. It was not until 1980 when Cambodia was taken over by Vietnam did the country has money again.