coins do appreciate in value

in an earlier blog, i related how i ended up with some 'worthless' malaysian one ringgit coins. currencies actually do not become worthless because, over time as they become scarce, they will be in demand by collectors and hence the value may increase.

limited edition coins and notes actually appreciate in value quite rapidly over time. even coins and notes which are still in circulation today may fetch a greater than face value in the future. that is why collection of currency can be a rewarding hobby. when a coin becomes rare and even if it is no longer a legal tender, it can sometimes be worth a great many times its original face value.

i know that my one-dollar singapore merlion coins, minted between 1967 and 1984 and designed by the late mr kwan sai kheong, are worth at least $5.00 each if i sell them to collectors. however, i do not think i will part with them. i acquired a number of them in the 70s and i have been keeping them for posterity, maybe to pass on to my children and grandchildren.

although they are as legal tender as the ba-gua one dollar coins that we use every day, i have never see them in circulation. maybe, when they were first put into circulation, some people did use them but when others started to hoard them, they gradually ceased to seen being used in public.

if you go to the open air market at sungei road, you can see these coins in public. the people who trade in currencies do have them on display.

don't hoard foreign currency































i had an unpleasant surprise when i visited malaysia in the 2006. because of proximity and hence, the frequency of visits, i normally would exchange more money that i would need and whatever was unspent, i would keep for the next visit. i had some loose change from my previous visit but when i wanted to pay for my purchases with some malaysian one-ringgit coins, the shop-keeper told me: 'ini, ta boleh pakai'.


suddenly, i was five or six ringgit poorer. i was blissfully unaware of the demonetization and withdrawal of the coin from circulation. it was also no longer a legal tender. which meant i could not take the coins to the monetary authority to redeem or exchange for cash. the same thing has happened to the 1-cent coin. it is no longer a legal tender with effect from april 2008.


the one ringgit coin was introduced in 1993 to replace the one ringgit note, which because of its greater usage, tended to get torn or damaged more easily. i did not hear any of my malaysian friends or colleagues mention about the 'demise' of the one ringgit coin. later, i found out that there were two versions of the coin and that forgery had been quite rampant. incidentally, the one ringgit note was reintroduced in 2000.


talking about the two versions, if you travel to penang and beyond, you will wonder if there are indeed two types of currency in use in malaysia. when i first visited penang in the 70s, the hawkers asked for 5 kupang instead of 50 sen and some chinese hawkers quoted the price in poat, which i mistook for bhat.