Saturday, September 29, 2007

Brunei $50 1995 - Illustration


I saw this postcard about Kampong Ayer (for the non-Bruneian visitors to this blog - Kampong Ayer means Water Village and many Bruneians still live the traditional life on the water along the Brunei River) and I thought it looked very familiar. It took quite a while before it hit me. This postcard was used for the reverse of the $50 1995 note.


See? I have not ventured into the design of notes. Though I am still quite intrigued why this photo of a number of Kampong Ayer residents crossing the river in the rain would make a good illustration for a $50 note. Any suggestions?

5 comments:

kai said...

Nice postcard you got there. In fact the BR50 was first issued in 1989. Then 1990 and 1995. I am not sure if there were others issued between 1991 to 1994.

Rozan Yunos said...

I meant the 1995 was for the note that I had. But yes, you are right. The $50 was issued in 1989, 1990 and 1991 and then 1995 (though the 1995 issuance was missed by the 18th edition of the Standard Catalogue of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei issued. The 13th edition of Krause Standard Catalog of World Paper Money indicated 1994 as another year of printing.

kai said...

Sorry Rozan, I don’t mean to pick on you. I like this kind of design of banknotes where it depicted the daily life of the local people. In fact I find the entire 1989 series as the best design of all Brunei banknotes issued so far. Of course this is only my personal opinion.

Rozan Yunos said...

It's ok. It's good for you to point it out which I should have done when I mentioned the $50 note. I agree that out of the 4 series, the 1989 is the best. Unfortunately I was told that the 1989 series are popular with counterfeiters and I guess in a way affected the decision of the Currency Board to go straight into polymer by 1996.

kai said...

I just wonder if those people on the boat were aware that they appeared on this note. How about the $500 1989 note (woman padding her boad)? Would that also came from a postcard too. This would be my favourite for this series.