Brunei $5 1989 Second Series

Every now and then, good luck happens. My nephew, a branch manager with one of the banks in Brunei called me up and said that one customer deposited $185 worth of the above notes. He did not the value, all he said was, paper notes with white borders. That perked me up. White borders means either the 1st series or 2nd series Brunei notes.

Apparently the customer's father had been keeping this money under his bed or pillows or something like that. He was worried that the money might be lost and he had decided to deposit it into his dad's account. What a dutiful son.

The amazing thing was that almost all of the notes were in AUNC condition (Almost Uncirculated which means looking very unused to people not in the numismatic jargon). Anyway, I rushed over and exchanged brand new notes for these old notes. I could not believe my luck in my collection this last two months. Last month, I got about $3,000 worth of 1990s paper notes. This month, not as much, but equally or more valuable, the 2nd series.

How much is this worth if it was in the market? For a pure UNC, it might be worth ten times its face value. For each $5 notes first issued in 1981, if I am not mistaken, you probably, if you find a buyer, sell it for $50. Though this one is not as valuable. Issued in 1989, probably worth around 4 times its face value. Still it is a good 2nd series collection and I am glad for my good luck this Hari Raya.

Unattainable Wish

If someone was to ask me what is it that you want? There are many things that many of us want and I too have my own wants. But I am pretty much satisfied with the Al-Mighty's gifts.

However philatelically, there is something I want the most. That one is this Brunei's stamp during the Japanese Occupation in the second World War. During the War, the Japanese overprinted Brunei's stamps with their Imperial Japanese mark and used these stamps. These stamps are all highly valued because not many were available due to the fact that not many people were sending out letters during the War - the Allied (British, Australians etc) were captured and who on earth were the then Brunei people want to write to?

The most expensive of all the overprinted Brunei is this one. This 1 cent stamp overprinted for $3 payment for telegraphic use is valued at about $12,0000 to $15,000 today! Get hold of one and you can live quite happily to the end of days. However, I acquired this stamp recently. And most of you readers are thinking WoW!

Unfortunately this is not the real McCoy. This is a fake and I paid pittance for it. Relatively speaking pittance but even fakes still cost a fair bit. If ever you find an original one hidden somewhere in your grandfatherh's stamp collection that looks almost like this or better than this and want to know who will pay good money for it, let me know. I can't offer $12,000 but let me know, we can work out a new price.

Brunei $100 4th Series 1996

The other day my sister called me up. She said they came across someone depositing paper notes. Every now and then I had been asking her whether paper notes have come in. This time I struck lucky. 8 of these notes came in and I was very lucky. Their condition was almost AUNC. You can't get any better than that.

Anyway, I am posting the notes, so you can see for youself what they are.

Hari Raya Stamps

We will be celebrating the end of the fasting month soon. In Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore, the festival would be known as Hari Raya Eid Fitri. Most other countries would just say celebrating the Eid Fitr. Surprisingly, I don't ever remember seeing any stamps produced specifically for the celebrations by any of the Muslim countries. So, I was pleasantly surprised to receive these two sets of stamps from my good friend, Kai in Australia. He sent me these stamps which came from his own personal collection and hoped that these would come at the right time. Yes indeed Kai! The stamps came in time for the Hari Raya celebrations.


The first set is from Christmas Islands. I checked and found out that these stamps were issued in 1989.


The second set is from Keeling or Cocos Islands and these were issued in 1991.

Thank you Kai! And Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri to you...