Kuala Lumpur August 2024 "An exceptional coin"
16/08/24 09:04
To appreciate why this story is unusual I need to first provide some background information. I like to collect coins and have done so throughout my life. When I was a child I used to look at the coins my parents gave me and keep one of each different date. When I got a coin in better condition than one I already had then I would keep that one instead. I can remember one day when I was about to pay for the bus journey to school that I looked at the six pennies my mother had given me for that and noticed the date on one of them was 1918 and next to it were the tiny letters KN (indicating the Mint where it was produced). My heart jumped for that was a rare coin and having no spare change I immediately got off the bus and ran home to exchange it for another penny! Well, it might have been a rare coin but it had been used for over 50 years and was worth only a few pennies to collectors. Not surprisingly that was the only coin like that I ever saw. As I grew older I started to collect new coins as soon they were issued by the Royal Mint. These coins were known as Proof coins and sparked inside their plastic containers but collecting those was not as much fun as finding the same coin, albeit in a poorer condition, in my change. When I left the UK to come to Malaysia I sold my Proof coin collection and kept only those which I had collected from circulation.
Now living in Malaysia I started to collect their coins. I was lucky as my first visit was only two years after they had changed the design of their coins and both the old and the new were in circulation. I quickly got all the new coins in near perfect condition but quality of the older design obviously varied depending on date. A near perfect condition coin is called Uncirculated and has hardly any scratches on it. Coins don't stay in that condition for long once they start to be used. My Malaysia coin collection looks very much like my UK coin collection, full of old and worn coins with spaces for those years where few coins were minted and are therefore hard to find. So with a lifetimes interest in collecting coins declared to you and known to God I will now explain what happened to me.
My wife and I had gone shopping for food and it was usual for us to use our credit/debit cards to pay for this as the cost was usually in the hundred's of Ringgit. However this day the cost was less than a hundred so I decided to hand over a couple of Fifty Ringgit notes in the hope of getting some 2024 coins in my change. I was surprised to find two of the old 20 sen coins amongst my change as it is uncommon nowadays to be given old coins. I glanced at these before separating them from the rest and putting them in the jacket pocket I reserve for collectable coins. One of the coins was shinny and I thought probably came from the last years they were issued, 2010-2012. It could be a better condition coin than the one I had so I would check for that. When I got home I carefully removed the coins and looked at them under a magnifying glass. One was well worn and I put it back in my pocket to spend but the other was an exceptional coin. I was looking at the face of the coin (which isn't a face in Malaysia but has a representation of the Parliament building) and it was unmarked. I tilted it in the light and could see slight scratches but no wear, this was an uncirculated coin. I turned it over and the reverse side was in a similar condition and there I could see the date 1998. This coin was 25 years old and in perfect condition. How it arrived in the cash till of that shop is an unsolvable mystery because a Bank would never have issued it to them. These old coins were rapidly disappearing from circulation yet here in my hand was a perfect coin from 25 years ago that I had just been given! I removed the 1998 coin I already had from my collection and slotted this one into its place. It isn't a valuable coin, maybe worth 10 Ringgit, but it has a story to tell.
In my blog I share stories of the unusual things that happen in my life. Sometimes the meaning is immediately obvious to me (such as in the "Writing on the Wall") other times it is not ("Dock of the Bay" and "Dock of the Bay two" being examples of these). This is one of the latter stories where the meaning behind it will become apparent in the days or years to come.
Now living in Malaysia I started to collect their coins. I was lucky as my first visit was only two years after they had changed the design of their coins and both the old and the new were in circulation. I quickly got all the new coins in near perfect condition but quality of the older design obviously varied depending on date. A near perfect condition coin is called Uncirculated and has hardly any scratches on it. Coins don't stay in that condition for long once they start to be used. My Malaysia coin collection looks very much like my UK coin collection, full of old and worn coins with spaces for those years where few coins were minted and are therefore hard to find. So with a lifetimes interest in collecting coins declared to you and known to God I will now explain what happened to me.
My wife and I had gone shopping for food and it was usual for us to use our credit/debit cards to pay for this as the cost was usually in the hundred's of Ringgit. However this day the cost was less than a hundred so I decided to hand over a couple of Fifty Ringgit notes in the hope of getting some 2024 coins in my change. I was surprised to find two of the old 20 sen coins amongst my change as it is uncommon nowadays to be given old coins. I glanced at these before separating them from the rest and putting them in the jacket pocket I reserve for collectable coins. One of the coins was shinny and I thought probably came from the last years they were issued, 2010-2012. It could be a better condition coin than the one I had so I would check for that. When I got home I carefully removed the coins and looked at them under a magnifying glass. One was well worn and I put it back in my pocket to spend but the other was an exceptional coin. I was looking at the face of the coin (which isn't a face in Malaysia but has a representation of the Parliament building) and it was unmarked. I tilted it in the light and could see slight scratches but no wear, this was an uncirculated coin. I turned it over and the reverse side was in a similar condition and there I could see the date 1998. This coin was 25 years old and in perfect condition. How it arrived in the cash till of that shop is an unsolvable mystery because a Bank would never have issued it to them. These old coins were rapidly disappearing from circulation yet here in my hand was a perfect coin from 25 years ago that I had just been given! I removed the 1998 coin I already had from my collection and slotted this one into its place. It isn't a valuable coin, maybe worth 10 Ringgit, but it has a story to tell.
In my blog I share stories of the unusual things that happen in my life. Sometimes the meaning is immediately obvious to me (such as in the "Writing on the Wall") other times it is not ("Dock of the Bay" and "Dock of the Bay two" being examples of these). This is one of the latter stories where the meaning behind it will become apparent in the days or years to come.