One of a kind: Malaya and British Borneo 1 cent coin of 1962

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Map of Malaysia.

Sabah was previously the colony of British North Borneo.

Sarawak was also once a British colony.

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Malaya and British Borneo, 1 cent, 1961.


Photographer: Heath Warwick

Source: Museums Victoria

Copyright Museums Victoria / CC BY (Licensed as Attribution 4.0 International)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

After the end of World War II in 1945, the UK began the long process of giving up the British Empire and making its component parts independent. By 1957 it was the turn of the Federation of Malaya, which became independent on 31 August. Malaya was located on the Malay peninsula, and in geographical terms the former Malaya now constitutes the greater, western part of modern Malaysia.

Since 1953 the Federation of Malaya had used the Malaya and British Borneo dollar as its currency. This was the product of a currency union that the UK had created to supply Malaya itself and also the three separate British Crown Colonies of Sarawak, British Borneo, and Singapore, along with the British protectorate of Brunei.

Sarawak and British Borneo were situated on the north of the large island of Borneo and directly bordered Indonesia. Upon independence in 1957, the Federation of Malaya continued using the Malaya and British Borneo dollar. The coinage that was issued from 1953 onwards featured a crowned effigy of Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse, while a non-pictorial design appeared on the reverse, with the circumscription "MALAYA AND BRITISH BORNEO", as well as the relevant year and denomination. The final issues bearing the Queen's effigy carry the date of 1961. All these coins were of course the products of the Royal Mint, which was still based in London at that time.

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Malaya and British Borneo, 1 cent, 1962.

Photographer: Heath Warwick

Source: Museums Victoria

Copyright Museums Victoria / CC BY (Licensed as Attribution 4.0 International)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Collectors of Malayan coinage will know of the lone oddity of 1962, a bronze 1 cent coin which is unusual in various respects. First of all, the previous 1 cent coin, though made of bronze, was square with rounded corners, whereas the 1962 coin was round. Also, the 1962 coin did not carry a portrait of the Queen. Instead, her portrait has been replaced by a representation of two crossed Malayan daggers. Such a dagger is known as a keris. The design that featured them was pictorial only and carried no text.

Meanwhile, the other side showed the words "MALAYA AND BRITISH BORNEO" and the year and denomination as usual. Because the side showing the crossed daggers was pictorial only, it was regarded as the new reverse of the coin, while the side showing the denomination was now regarded as the obverse, since it referenced the territories that the coinage was serving.

The daggers design was the work of Barry Stanton, a Royal Mint artist and sculptor at that time, though in the mid-1970s he joined the Pobjoy Mint, where he produced many designs for the Isle of Man.

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Sketches of the planned 1963 coin series for Malaysia.


Images of the unissued Malaysian designs are from The National Archives (TNA), Royal Mint document MINT 25/JD/Z:

"RMAC 148th Meeting 15 May 1963".


This information is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3

One might have thought that this new 1 cent coin would be the first of a new series, but it was not to be. However, evidence exists that such a series was planned.

The Royal Mint Advisory Committee at its 148th meeting, held in London in May 1963, commented:

Following the establishment of a Central Bank it has been decided to amend the inscription of the 1 cent coin of which the Committee approved designs last year and to prepare designs on similar lines for the remainder of the coins in the series (i.e. 5, 10, 20 and 50 sen). At the same time the bank have requested some sketches showing the crossed keris of the original 1 cent design accompanied by a wreath or other decoration. The photographs show the design at coin size. The 1 cent is bronze and the remaining denominations are cupro-nickel.

Photographs of designs prepared by the Royal Mint engravers are circulated herewith. The plant shown on the common obverse was chosen in consultation with the Director of the Botanical Gardens, Kew, and is the Rhodamnia Mempoyan. The arrangement of the plant is shown in four different ways for consideration by the Committee.

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EXPULSION OF SINGAPORE FROM THE FEDERATION

The Royal Mint documents show that this series of coins was planned for later in 1963. The sketches for the planned obverses include the circumscription "BANK NEGARA MALAYSIA", meaning "Central Bank of Malaysia", along with the year, but the denomination was now uniformly shown as the Malay "SEN", rather than the English "CENT" or "CENTS".

Ultimately, no such coins were minted, because political developments in Malaya were moving fast. On 16 September 1963, the British crown colonies of Sarawak, British Borneo, and Singapore were granted their independence, and on that same day they carried out their pre-arranged plan to join Malaya and become states of the Federation of Malaysia. Henceforth, British Borneo was known as Sabah, while the name "Malaya" disappeared into history.

Before long, however, tensions emerged between the ethnic Malays, who constitute around two thirds of present-day Malaysia, and the Singaporeans. The ethnic Chinese represent around 76% of Singapore's population today. Back in 1963, they slightly outnumbered the ethnic Malays of the Federation of Malaysia. Singapore resented the high level of tax that it was expected to pay to the Federation, while some Malays resented the entrepreneurial Singaporeans because of their wealth.

These tensions were played upon by some newspapers and politicians of both camps, culminating in the Singapore riots of July and September 1964 between ethnic Malays and ethnic Chinese, during which more than 20 Singaporeans died and hundreds were injured.

After the riots the tensions continued, until on 9 August 1965 the Malaysian parliament voted unanimously to expel Singapore from the Federation, though the Singaporean MPs of the parliament boycotted the vote. Singapore became an independent republic on that same day.

The currency union of Malaya and British Borneo was terminated in 1967, and Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei each issued their own dollar currency. The Malaysian and Brunei dollars were each subdivided into 100 sen, while the Singaporean subunits were called "cents". The Malaysian dollar was later renamed as the ringgit.

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Malaysia, 1 sen, 1967.

Photographer: Heath Warwick

Source: Museums Victoria

Copyright Museums Victoria / CC BY (Licensed as Attribution 4.0 International)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Curiously, just like the Malaya and British Borneo coin of 1962, the Malaysian and Singaporean coinages carried pictorial designs only on their reverses, which is unusual for modern coins. The Malaysian, Singapore and Brunei dollars were initially held at par and the latter two still are, but in 1973 Malaysia left the arrangement and the Singapore dollar is now worth more than three times the Malaysian dollar. Oil-rich Brunei, for many years a British protectorate, became fully independent from the UK on 1 January 1984.

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RELATED TOPICS

British North Borneo

Coinage of Malaysia

Coinage of Singapore

The British Rajahs of Sarawak

The Coinage of Malaya

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The kris (spellings vary) is not just a Malayan tradition, so there is no Malayan kris. It also occurs in Brunei and Indonesia and perhaps elsewhere. My information is from Indonesia.

The symbolism of the kris is not neutral. It is a sign of adult responsibility. The tradition is that a kris has a soul. That soul must be satisfied with blood when the kris is drawn. In other words, the kris cannot be drawn lightly or to threaten. Once the kris has drawn blood, it must be cleansed in a religious ceremony, that would invariably involve a payment. Again, this tradition is meant to make sure the kris is not used lightly.

The crossed kris may in the eyes of the locals have been a symbol of aggression: two drawn weapons, one person must be wounded or killed. In that light, an office tower is distinctly more peaceful.

In addition, the kris is a symbol of the Malays, so its exclusive use on the series would have excluded the Chinese. The separation between Malaysia and Singapore was indeed based on race. It is not always appreciated that this led to race discrimination in both countries, but most virulently in Malaysia, that has a "bumiputra" policy in place to advance Malay people and suppress in particular the Chinese. Similar, but less severe policies exist in Indonesia.

Peter