1939 Malaya 20 cents coin

In this post, let us have a look on the 1939 Malaya 20 cents coin, with the portrait of the King George VI minted on the coin.

This coin is not expensive for numismatic collector, but it have some interesting history fact that I would like to share on this coin.

1939 is the year that Malayan Dollar replace the Straits Settlements currency, and it is issued by Board of Commissioners Currency Malaya, the history of the Malayan Dollar can be found in the Wikipedia link here.

Here are some fact that I like this coin,

1. In their previous issues of Straits Settlement coin, the highest denomination for Queen Victoria version is 50 cents, and one dollar for King Edward VII and King George V, even after that the Queen Elizabeth II have the highest denomination of 50 cent for coin, but the King George VI series 20 cent is the highest denomination for coin.

2. This is consider the last series of the coin minting using silver as material, from 1948 onwards, the King George VI series of coin change the minting material to copper-nickel and it continues to the Queen Elizabeth II series, this is due to the shortage of minting material during the World War II at that period of time.

3. Due to the shortage of minting material as stated in the above fact, there are paper money of 20 cent banknotes issued, it is also the era when the 1 cent to 20 cent have both coin and banknotes version.