Rarity of the Malaya 1945i 10 Cents @ Stacks HK?

[alphaNumis]

A Malaya KGVI 10 cents 1945i is up for bidding in the coming Stacks Auction in Hong Kong.

Now accroding to KN Boon's catalog KN6f has 8.048 million pieces minted and yet the Stacks catalog state that there is less than 10 known specimens of these.

What gives?

[Figleaf]

I am far from my library. From memory, regular 10 cent coins were produced and stockpiled in London during the second world war. In the months it was still dangerous to ship them, a further consignment was produced in Bombay with mm "i", but largely destroyed as the nazis surrendered, making the shipping lanes much safer. Therefore, mintage was probably much larger than the number of survivors.

As it is quite likely that the survivors never reached the Straits, they have probably never have had a monetary function, so their status as coins is disputable.

Peter

[alphaNumis]

Thanks Peter.

Any idea which reference / document mentions that the coins with mm "I" were destroyed / never issued?

Pridmore didn't mention anything about it and is there a way to verify the total amount minted? 

[Figleaf]

Amount minted should be in Bombay mint records. What I used to call my memory says the info came from an article in a US coin newspaper. Can't check it now and may never find it as those records went through four international moves. Sorry.

Peter