Coinage of Malaysia

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Map of Malaysia.

From Wikipedia:

Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia with a population of 32 million. The federal constitutional monarchy consists of 13 states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two similarly sized regions, Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia (Malaysian Borneo). Kuala Lumpur is the national capital and largest city while Putrajaya is the seat of federal government.

Malaysia has its origins in the Malay kingdoms which from the 18th century became subject to the British Empire, when the Straits Settlements became British protectorates. Peninsular Malaysia was unified as the Malayan Union in 1946. Malaya was restructured as the Federation of Malaya in 1948, and achieved independence on 31 August 1957. Malaya united with North Borneo, Sarawak, and Singapore on 16 September 1963 to become Malaysia. In 1965, Singapore was expelled from the federation.

The majority of the population is ethnically Malay, with large minorities of Malaysian Chinese (at around 23% of the population,  the second largest community of Overseas Chinese in the world), Malaysian Indians (around 7% of the population), and indigenous peoples. The constitution grants freedom of religion but recognises Islam as the established religion of the state.

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Coat of arms of Malaysia.

From Wikipedia:

The coat of arms of Malaysia (Malay: Jata Negara) is a coat of arms comprising a shield or escutcheon, two tigers for supporters, a crescent and fourteen-pointed star for a crest and a motto. As the Malaysian coat of arms descended from that of the Federated Malay States under British colonial rule, it resembles European heraldic designs.

See: Coat of arms of Malaysia.

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Flag of Malaysia.

From Wikipedia:

The flag of Malaysia is composed of a field of 14 alternating red and white stripes along the fly, and a blue canton bearing a crescent and a 14-point star, known as the Federal Star. The 14 stripes, of equal width, represent the equal status in the federation of the 13 member states and the federal territories, while the 14 points of the star represent the unity between these entities. The crescent represents Islam, the country's state religion; the blue canton symbolises the unity of the Malaysian people; the yellow of the star and crescent is the royal colour of the Malay rulers.

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National coinage competition: the rejected winning entries.

In 1966 the Bank Negara Malaysia held a public competition, inviting local artists to submit designs for the new nation's coinage. The Royal Mint was invited to produce patterns of the winning designs, which featured wildlife:

When the pattern pieces were completed, representatives of the Bank Negara travelled to Kula Lumpur to show them to the prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman.

"No, this won't do", said the prime minister, after studying the patterns. "People will think we eat these animals. Since we are a parliamentary democracy, why not have a picture of the parliament building on all the coins. Look, there is a good picture of it on this packet of 'Parliament' cigarettes".

And so these beautiful designs were consigned to oblivion, and the pattern pieces ended up in the hands of foreign collectors. As a lover of wildlife designs on coins, I find this proposed set to be both beautiful and a fascinating example of what might have been, but the story of its rejection by the cigarette-smoking prime minister is both infuriating and comical.

See:  Rejected Malaysian Wildlife Set of 1966.

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Malaysia's first coinage.

From Wikipedia:

The first series of sen coins were introduced in 1967 in denominations of 1 sen, 5 sen, 10 sen, 20 sen, 50 sen, followed by the introduction of the 1 ringgit coin (which used the $ symbol and is the largest coin in the series) in 1971.

The word ringgit is an obsolete term for "jagged" in Malay and was originally used to refer to the serrated edges of silver Spanish dollars which circulated widely in the area during the 16th and 17th century Portuguese colonial era. In modern usage ringgit is used almost solely for the currency.

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The reverse of the bronze 1 sen coin.

The common reverse of the coinage depicted the Malaysian parliament building.

It was the work of Royal Mint artist and sculptor Geoffrey Colley.

His initials are seen at the bottom right. Above you see

The design also featured the 13-pointed federal star and crescent moon from the Malaysian flag.

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Malayisa, 50 sen, 1977.

Above you see the reverse design as it appeared on the copper-nickel coins of 5 sen and upward.

See also: Circulation coins where one side has neither text nor numerals.

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Malaysia, 1 sen, 1977. 

Above you see the obverse of the 1 sen coin.

The motifs at the far left and right of the design are stylised hibiscus flowers.

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Malaysia, 5 sen, 1968. 

The higher copper-nickel denominations all had a similar obverse design.

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Malaysia, 10 sen, 1976.  Obverse.

The images are not to scale and do not reflect the relative sizes of the coins.

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Malaysia, 20 sen, 1980.  Obverse.

Often when a coinage includes a subunit of 20, there is also a subunit of 2, but not in this case.

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Malaysia, 50 sen, 1967.  Obverse.

The 50 sen coin was the highest denomination of the coins issued in 1967.


From 1967 to 1970, the 50 sen coin came in two variations

It was issued with a milled edge or else a security edge.


From 1971 to 1988 it had a smooth edge with an inscription.

The inscription was:

MALAYSIA BANK NEGARA MALAYSIA BANK NEGARA

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The 1 ringgit coin was added in 1971.

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The reverse of the 1 ringgit coin.

This design featured a 14-pointed star and a crescent moon.

They were positioned differently from those on the lower denominations.

The crescent and star were depicted in thinner forms.

The crescent itself was significantly larger than on the lower denominations.

Interestingly, this design did not show the designer's initials.

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END OF THE FIRST SERIES

From Wikipedia:

The coins of this first series were identical in size and composition to those of the former Malaya and British Borneo dollar. Though the Malayan currency union coins were withdrawn, they still appear in circulation on very rare occasions.

Minting of the first sen series ended in 1989, when the second series was introduced. The older coins remain legal tender as of 2018 but have steadily declined in number and are seldom seen in circulation.