Queen Victoria 50 cents Private Medalic

Queen Victoria Straits Settlement coin is one of the favourite theme for Malaysia numismatic lover, the largest denomination in this series is 50 cents coin that issued between 1886 to 1901, but this coin is not cheap even in the EF condition, so UNC is consider rare with much higher pricing.

In 2019, I found that there are 100 pieces of the private issue medallic, using the design of 1889 Queen Victoria 50 cents Straits Settlement coin, is selling in the local numismatic channel in NCG slab, I think this is a very beautiful design which NGC give them a PFUC (Proof Ultra Cameo) grading. For those who wish to enjoy the eye appealing design can consider to have it but of course in numismatic value, it is still just a private issue medallic and not a real coin.

And when I browse through the NGC population record, interestingly found that there are another 100 pieces of the private issue medallic issued in this year, and it is in the design of 1893 Queen Victoria 50 cents Straits Settlement coin, at the time of writing I still didn't see any of them selling at local market.

I'm also curios it is which party or company issuing this private issue medallic.

Bhutan The Word's Happiest Country

In the current global Covid-19 pandemic, there are many peoples in the world caught in stressful emotion due to their financial condition as many economy activities need to be stop due to the social distancing measurement that need to carry out to break the chain of the virus infection.

Bhutan is a very unique country that first adopt Gross National Happiness  (GNH) in the world, more about GNH can be found in the Wikipedia link here. Although in the recent year ranking for the most happiest country, Bhutan is not in the top list, but the country is taking the crown before.

In the current world condition, I think many have to learn about the lifestyle of Bhutan to have some inner peace for oneself, I'm not really a vegan, but I think the vegan culture in Bhutan also play some big role in their happiness index.

Photo from internet show the King of Bhutan together with Queen and Prince, and the commemorative banknotes issued in 2016 to commemorate the birth of Prince Bhutan.

Series of China Commemorative Banknotes

This commemorative banknotes issued in 1999 is to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of People's Republic of China, it features Chairman Mao reading "China Resurrected" on 01-01-1949 in Tiananmen, Peking.

This piece of commemorative banknotes issued on 2000 to celebrate the new millennium. With vibrant red and orange hues, this "dragon" note has great eye appeal.

This commemorative banknotes issued on 2008 in conjunction with the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic, this is the smallest denomination commemorative banknotes issued in China so far, but at the time of writing, it carry highest market value compare to other China commemorative banknotes. Feature with the design of the Olympic main stadium where they call it "Bird Nest".

This commemorative banknotes issued on 2015 to celebrates first China Aerospace Day. This was a way to annouce future space exploration and as well as honour China's pioneers on space travel. Feature with very unique satellite design.

This commemorative banknotes issued on 2018 is to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of renminbi.

The Beauty of the Straits Settlement One Dollar Coin

One of the charming view of the Straits Settlement One Dollar coin is its reverse side of coin, which have the total of 3 languages of the denomination letter struck at this side of coin, the denomination of one dollar is shown in English, Chinese and Jawi, even in the British Trade Dollar which the reverse side have about the similar design, their English denomination is putting at the obverse side.

In this post, I'm showing the obverse side of the 1907 Straits Settlement One Dollar coin, which the design is portrait of King Edward VII with the crowned bust facing right, which is the master piece of the engraver George William de Saullers, and for different year you may found Straits Settlement coin with different portrait like Queen Victoria and King George V which both of coin is design as such crowned bust facing left. But there are no one dollar Straits Settlement coin with Queen Victoria portrait which at that era of time the one dollar is using the paper money design.

Commemorative Coins of the Installation of His Majesty Seri Paduka Baginda Yang di-Pertuan Agong XVI

On the 1st August 2019, Bank Negara Malaysia in a press release announce that the issuance of Commemorative coin in conjuncti on with the Installation of His Majesty Seri Paduka Baginda Yang di-Pertuan Agong XVI Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah Ibni Almarhum Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Al-Musta'in Billah as the sixteenth Yang di-Pertuan Agong on 30th July 2019.

The details on the issuance can be found in the Bank Negara website here.

In this post it is to show some interesting process on the making of this coin.

In one exhibition held at Sasana Kijang Bank Negara recently, on of the column have show the simple process on the making of this coin, in the above photo, there are numbering below each item with the below description.

1. Coin dies for production of silver commemorative coins
Coin dies are the tool for the coins minting. There are two faces of die, observe and reserve

2. Silver Coin Blanks and Nordic Gold Coin Blanks
Coin blank is a disc-shaped metal used to produce a coin. Upon striking process, the image from coin dies will be transferred onto the coin blanks.

Clay
In designing the YDPA  Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah Ibni Almarhum Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Al-Musta'in Billah commemorative coin, an experienced Coin Designer will properly handcraft the clay, i.e. into the muskat, head-dress and portrait of the YDPA. The clays will be scanned to produce digital files. With using software, the digital file of muskat, head-dress and portrait will then be combined to carve a master dies.

3. Muscat Clay

4. Head-dress clay

5. Clay portrait of YDPA  Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah Ibni Almarhum Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Al-Musta'in Billah clay

6. The approved image of YDPA

1903 Straits Settlements One Dollar

One may found that the 1903 Straits Settlements One Dollar coin have 2 types of mintmark, which they call it incuse mintmark and another is raised mintmark.

The mintmark stated is a letter B that found near the crown of the King Edward VII portrait, so why they have this 2 kind of mintmark, first let us have a look how the raised mintmark looks like, here is a photo from the Heritage Auction website which they have the high resolution photo that we can zoom to the crown mintmark area and you can see the letter B mintmark is as below photo.

And I get another high resolution photo from Great Collection website, which we can zoom in to the letter B near the crown and it is looks like the below photo.

So why they have this 2 types of mintmark, which I can't really find a support story in this coin history from Google, but there are one collector mention that originally this coin is mint in raised mintmark version, but after that due to public complaint that the mintage company mintmark should not be a raised type which make it looks like more important than the crown which symbol the Royal status, so the mintage company have to change the mintage version to incuse B mintmark on this reason. But this is just the story I heard which I still can't found any supporting source, if any numismatic have the story behind this mintmark, you are welcome to put it under the comment.

Commemorative note celebrates the 500th anniversary of the discovery of Brazil

Sometime it is interesting to learn some history when you enjoying numismatic, do you know that Brazil is discovered by a Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral back to 22nd April 1500, it is already 520 years back, and on the year 2000, Brazil had issued a commemorative banknotes to celebrates the 500th anniversary of the discovery of Brazil, this note is featuring at the PMG note of the month article which publish on 21st April 2020, the PMG article can be found here.