The 1961 $10 Note

I dropped into the Tamu. I did it a couple of days ago but the old lady selling the old currency notes were nowhere to be found. Today she was around. I dropped in as casual as I could look, pretending as if I wasn't interested in her currency notes. I don't think it worked. Anyway I started a casual conversation on her money and saw that she had a few notes mostly the old Japanese currency during the war (more popularly known as duit pisang - banana money). But she had 3 interesting notes - the $10 Queen Elizabeth (issued 1953), the $10 King George VI (1941) and the $10 Malaya Borneo (issued in 1961). The former two I have and the latter one I was still competing on ebay trying to get it. The latter one is the most scarce despite being the most recent of the three.

I tried to bargain but she stood firm with the price of $230 which is slightly higher than on the net but at least I don't have to pay for shipping and insurance getting it from overseas. In the end I bought that. I also managed to get the duit bintang from her plus an older coin of around 17th or 18th century Brunei. It's one of the issues by an unidentifiable Sultan of Brunei.

When I came back I found out that I have also won the same $10 - which completely surprised me at much cheaper than I thought and I might win another two auctions as I have already raised my max bids on both. In two weeks time I will have 4 pieces of this $10. I have to start selling on ebay too!

The following is that hard to get $10 note. It was issued in 1961 by the Malaya and British Borneo Board of Currency Commissioners and popularly known as Duit Kerabau because of the ox on the note. It replaced the $10 which had the face of Queen Elizabeth II issued in 1953. On the back, it also had the crest of Brunei as one of the co signers of the 1938 agreement for this board of currency. The colour red followed on from the 1941 issue of King George VI and remained red till today (look at your $10 note).