MALAYSIA OLD CURRENCY

The hobby of collecting Malaysia old currency or banknotes has recently become very popular.

If you intend to enhance your current collection, or are just starting to collect, you will find a great selection of banknotes here, or some of you may want to keep a "little history" of Malaysia with its currencies.

I will be updating this website everyday, so please make sure you keep coming here frequently to check for updates.

First Malaysian Series of Notes 1967 - 1972

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) issued its first local currency notes on 1967, valued at 1, 5, 10, 50 and 100 Ringgit Malaysia (RM). The 1000 note was launched on 2nd Sept 1968. The overall design for all the currency notes was very similar. The observe had the portrait of the first DYMM Yang-Di-Pertuan Agong, the first ruler of the country. It had the words "Bank Negara Malaysia" and was signed by the Governer of BNM, Tun Ismail bin Mohamed Ali. On the reverse was the BNM emblem with decorated geomatric designs as the background. The new Malay spelling system was launched on 16th Aug 1972, thus BNM included the new spelling system into the currency notes, but maintained the same design of the currency. For example, the word "SA-PULOH" was changed to "SE-PULUH" on the observe of the RM10 notes. In the 1976, addtional security measure was included, where a latent image of the numeric number appeared when the notes are seen at an angle.

In the 1982, the printed banknotes were signed by the new Governer of BNM, Tan Sri Aziz bin Hj Taha. On 1st Sep 1982, BNM issued two types of new banknotes valued at RM20 and RM500. The new notes weredesigned in line with the Malaysian culture. The tiger watermark on the old noteswas replaced by the portraits watermark of teh first DYMM Yang Di-Pertuan Agong. The new notes printed in Singapore 1983, covered the Malaysian buildings and landmarks, and came in smaller size compared to the earlier.

In 1996 Feb, BNM issued a new type of banknote valued at RM2. This was followed by RM1, RM5, RM10, RM50 and RM100, using new security marks. In 1998 following the financial crisis, the RM500 and RM1000 were withdrawn from circulation. Later on the RM1 coin was also withdrawn from circulation, due to the appearance of fake coins.