Tuesday, July 3, 2007

The Saddam Note

I have been visiting the antique sellers here in Bandar Seri Begawan. I know there is an old lady at the Tamu selling old things plus old money. Unfortunately when I went there last Monday, she was not there. So I thought I will drop in at the Bandaran Complex (aka Parking Bertingkat) and I found one shop somewhere round the back. But the old man who owned the shop was very surly and clearly does not believe in customers. However his shop is a real treasure trove and he sells among other the Duit Bintang (Star Coin) issused by Sultan Hashim sometime in 1886. That particular coin was controversial when it was issued, I will write about that sometime in the future.

I also dropped in at the International Trade Exhibition and I thought I will find something of interest there. I did. There was an Iranian seller selling some currency notes. I found one of Saddam Hussain's 10000 dinars, three of Iran's with a 1 riyal with Ayatollah Khomeini. The seeler was telling me how valuable these were and we negotiated a price of B$50 for all 4 notes. When I went back, I checked on ebay. The Saddam note was sold for about US$2 and the other three notes like US$1 each which makes about US$5 (B$7.50). Hmmm.... This makes a nice dinner story and I have been telling it. Here is the Saddam note:

1 comment:

Z.M said...

I have the saddam note too, in mint condition! Bought it from a bookstore in KLIA :)