Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Singapore's $10,000


For those who kept with my other blog would have known that I have spent the last 6 days in Singapore. And numismatically, it was worth the 6 days. I managed to get a few notes especially older Brunei and a number of other notes as well. But I thought the one I posted above takes the cake.

This is a Singapore $10,000 genuine specimen note. The only difference between this one and the one in circulation (if you can find any) is that this one has the word specimen on it. According to my numismatic dealer, this note was available for $180 when it first came out. Of course, it is not $180 anymore when I paid for it.

According to my dealer too, apparently some of these specimen notes were taken to one country and over there they managed to wipe off the word specimen and then changed each note for an actual $10,000. I have never heard of this story but if this is true, I am not surprised that the story was not publicised. No one wants to look like a fool and at the same time no one wants many people to find out that these $10,000 specimen notes are actually worth something more than the original price of $180.

On a separate note, if you were to find a Brunei $10,000 specimen note, how much do you think you would have to pay for it? Well, the price on ebay is at least $10,000.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

the banks actually track who has these notes ....

Phil T. said...

I don't think so, back when I was punting on race horses in Singapore I used to receive these notes from time to time when I was lucky enough to cash significant wins. No fuss no muss, you don't come across them very often but you'll have no problem spending them anywhere in Singapore. You can be sure nobody's tracking them because when they gave them to me, they didn't ask for my personal details and when I spent them, they just took the notes no questions asked.