...Singapore - $20 Dated 2019 Bicentennial Commemorative 1819-2019 Polymer

Republic of Singapore
Republik Singapura / 新加坡共和国  / சிங்கப்பூர் குடியரசு

Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)
Currency : Dollar (SGD)

This $20 polymer commemorative note was launched by the President of Singapore Ms Halimah binti Yacob on 05.06.2019 and was released on 10.06.2019 by nine major retail banks throughout Singapore. A total of 2 million pieces in folders were issued at face value. Each person was allowed to have 20 pieces at a time. In addition to this, a 3-in-1 uncut sheet (5,000 sets) were also included in this issue. These uncut sheets were sold via a tendering system limited to one sheet per application at a cost of S$280. As expected, these uncut sheets were oversubscribed.

This note celebrates Singapore 200 years (Bicentennial celebration 1819-2019) of journey to nationhood since the first arrival of Sir Stamford Raffles on the island on 29.01.1819. The banknote pays tribute to eight individuals who laid the foundations for modern Singapore.

Design

Front - Singapore's first president Yusof Ishak (1910-1970), the former Supreme Court and City Hall (now the National Gallery of Singapore). The golden logo of SG 1819-2019 is printed on the left as well as the golden arms of Singapore. This note is only printed with the single word “SINGAPORE” on both front and back, instead of the usual four major languages in Malay, Chinese, Tamil and English;

Back - backdrop of the old Singapore River flowing into the modern day of Singapore, eight pioneering individuals who had made significant contributions to Singapore during their lifetime.

Like the previous $50 commemorative issued in 2018, there are no tiny symbols printed on the back of this note. There are also no text descriptions on the back except the names of those eight individuals.

The eight individuals honoured on this note are;
Top row (L-R)
*Henry Nicholas Ridley (English b.1855-1956) - first director of the Singapore Botanic gardens;
*P Govindasamy Pillai (Indian b.1887-1980) - Philanthropist;
*Alice Edith Wilhelmina Pennefather (Singaporean b.1903-1983) - Badminton and Tennis champion;
Front row (L-R)

*Munshi Abdullah (Dutch Malaccan b.1796-1854) - Raffles's secretary and interpreter;

*Tan Kah Kee (Chinese b.1874-1961) - Philanthropist;

*Teresa Hsu Chih (Chinese b.1896-2011) - Social worker;

*Adnan Saidi (Malayan b.1915-1942) - soldier and World War ll hero; and

*Ruth Wong Hie King (Singaporean b.1918-1982) - Institute of Education's founding director.

This note celebrates eight people of all races that made significant contributions to the nation in various fields during their lifetime, but not all of them were born in Singapore. To give you an example, Tan Kah Kee was born in China and he made his fortune in Singapore. However he was not allowed to return back to Singapore by the British after the last World War because he was more sympathetic to the communist led by Mao ZeDong than to the Nationalist Kuomintang led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek at the time. He died in Beijing China in 1961, aged 86 and was given a State funeral by the Chinese government. It appears that Tan was a very generous person during his lifetime. Today, there is a train station in Singapore named after him, including houses at schools, a memorial museum in China, Foundation and even an asteroid (2963 Chen Jiageng) too.

This issue was so successful that some of the bank branches ran out of stock on the first day and the entire issues was all distributed within 5 days. On 14.06.2019, MAS announced a further 2.0M pieces will be printed and issued on 03.11.2019. Later it was reported that only 1.8 million pieces were printed with more than 200,000 applications submitted for the second prints. The second batch of release was restricted to Singapore citizens and permanent residents and each applicant can apply up to 10 notes. Application was opened on 16.09.2019 for 4 weeks until 13.10.2019.

I believe the cost for the folders were covered by the nine major banks and as such the folders were issued at face value. This has also benefited collectors around the world as one does not have to pay for the cost of the folder. 

The prefixes printed for this series are: -

Initial Issue - AA, AB, AC, AD and AE;

Reprint - AF, AG, AH and AJ (no AI)

First print prefixes are AA to AE and the second prints are AF to AJ but no AI (not confirmed yet).

First Print
Twenty Dollars

Dated 2019, Prefix AB

Dated 2019, Prefix AC

Twenty Dollars

Dated 2019, Prefix AD

Dated 2019 - Prefix AE

Reverse

Second Prints
Twenty Dollars

Dated 2019, Prefix AF

Twenty Dollars

Dated 2019, Prefix AG

Twenty Dollars

Dated 2019, Prefix AH

Twenty Dollars

Dated 2019, Prefix AJ

Reverse

Folder Front Cover

**Footnote⇥

No past or present politicians or even Sir Stamford Raffles himself are featured in the designs. Not even the watermark (if any). The portrait of Yusof bin Ishak is expected due to the current portrait series.

The above posts are all my personal opinions only. If you think that it is not correct, please feel free to let me know. I will correct it if I need to. Just remember that no one is perfect.

...Singapore - Birds Series 1976 - 1984

Republik Singapura

Republic of Singapore; 新加坡共和国; சிங்கப்பூர் குடியரசு

Board of Commissioners of Currency/Monetary Authority of Singapore

Below are some of the Bird series banknotes I have in my collection. A full set comprises $1, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, $500, $1000 and $10000. I do not have the $1000 and $10000 notes.

One Dollar

ND06.08.1976

Reverse

Five Dollars

ND06.08.1976

Reverse

Ten Dollars

ND1980

Reverse

Twenty Dollars

ND06.08.1979

Reverse - design error

Fifty Dollars

ND1976

Reverse

One Hundred Dollars

ND01.02.1977

Reverse

Five Hundred Dollars (F Condition)

ND1977

Reverse

...Singapore - $20 Bird Series ND06.08.1979 Design Error

Republik Singapura

Republic of Singapore; 新加坡共和国; சிங்கப்பூர் குடியரசு

Board of Commissioners of Currency/Monetary Authority of Singapore

Did you know this?

Singapore Airlines (SIA) had never owned a Concorde airplane. The Concorde London to Singapore service via Bahrain was a joint venture between British Airways (BA) and SIA, which started on 9 December 1977 and only lasted for 3 return flights after the Malaysian government withdrew it's permission to overfly the Straits of Malacca. The dispute was then resolved and on 24 January 1979, the service was resumed but again ended on 1 November 1979 but this time it was due to commercial reasons as the service was not making any profit, about £2 million lost a year for this service alone.

Singapore issued a $20 Bird series note on 06.08.1979, 86 days before the Concorde service was cancelled for good. The design on the back of this note shows the right side of a Concorde taking off at the Singapore Paya Lebar International airport (the old international airport before moving to Changi International Airport).

The reason I have posted this note is the design of SIA's livery on the tail of the Concorde plane. As I said before that SIA had never owned a Concorde airplane and this joint venture with BA allowed SIA to have it's livery painted on the tail of the plane thus giving the company excellent publicity for it's brand image worldwide. The agreement allows the liveries of both companies to be painted on the tail of the airplane, BA and SIA. From the note below you can see that the SIA's livery was painted on the right side of the plane's tail, and this is incorrect. Only one Concorde (G-BOAD) was used for this route between London and Singapore. At the time of the service, the British Airway's livery was actually painted on the right side of the tail and the SIA's livery was painted on the left side. Technically, this is an error note, error due to designing.

Do a quick search on the Internet with the following words - "Images for SIA Concorde Livery" and you will see what I mean.

It is very obvious that this was a design flaw. Whoever designed this must have forgotten that the finished product would have a mirror image printed out, or was the designer not aware which side of the SIA logo should be on in the first place? This should not be the case as the Concorde JV started in December 1977 and this $20 note was issued in August 1979. A new banknote project may take up to 12 months to complete and therefore a simple research would tell the designer where the SIA livery should be painted on. Whilst it may be easy to blame the designer, what about the person(s) who approved this before going into production? Well, only the team that was involved in this project can answer this question.

courtesy of diecastaircraftforum.com

Twenty Dollars

ND1979

Error Livery

 

From the design of the note (reverse) it should have the BA's livery instead of the SIA.

...Brunei & Singapore - 2017 Currency Interchangeability Agreement (CIA) with Brunei Commemorative $50

Brunei and Singapore

Joint Issues

These are the two notes that were issued in a folder at face value, celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Currency Interchangeability Agreement.

Brunei Fifty Ringgit

Dated 2017. Prefix E/1

Reverse

Fifty Ringgit

Dated 2017, Prefix E/2

Reverse

Singapore Fifty Dollars

Dated 2017, Prefix 50AA

Dated 2017, Prefix 50AB

Dated 2017, Prefix 50AC

Dated 2017, Prefix 50AD

Dated 2017, Prefix 50AE

Reverse

...Singapore (and Brunei) - 2017 Currency Interchangeability Agreement (CIA) Commemorative $50 Uncut Sheet of 3

Singapore S$50 uncut sheet of 3. Only 3,000 sets at S$400 per set.

Fifty Dollars

Dated 2017

Reverse

...Brunei & Singapore - 2017 Currency Interchangeability Agreement (CIA) with Brunei Commemorative $50

On 07.07.2017 both Brunei and Singapore issued a commemorative $50 polymer note each, celebrating 50 years of Currency Interchangeability Agreement (CIA) between these two nations. These two notes were launched on 05.07.2017 in Singapore at the Istana (Palace - official residence of Singapore's President) by the Sultan of Brunei Hassanak Bolkiah during his State visit and the Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong.

Brief history of the CIA:
On 12.06.1967, Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore all issued their own new currencies for the first time, after sharing a single common currency for so many years, the last called the Malayan Dollar issued by the Board of Commissioners of Currencies of Malaya and British Borneo (BCCMBB). Prior to the new releases, on 07.01.1967, all 3 countries agreed in principle in Kuala Lumpur to accept all their new currencies (both banknotes and coins) at their respective countries at face value following the liquidation of the BCCMBB on 12.06.1967. The main purpose of the agreement was to facilitate economic co-operation and trade relations between the three countries. However on 08.05.1973, Malaysia opted out from this agreement leaving Singapore and Brunei to continue with this unique arrangement until present day. What this agreement means is that Singapore dollars can be freely acceptable at all banks in Brunei without losing any exchange value (at par without any fees or charges) and vice versa for Brunei Ringgit in Singapore*.

On 16.07.2007, a $20 was issued by both Singapore and Brunei celebrating the 40th Anniversary of this agreement and fast forward 10 years, we have these new commemorative notes issued.

The theme for these commemorative notes is "Flourishing Growth". For these new notes, the Brunei $50 (1.0M pieces) and the Singapore $50 (2.0M pieces) were both released on 07.07.2017 to the public by 9 major banks in Singapore (DBS, OCBC, UOB, Maybank, SCB, HSBC, Citibank, BoC and ICBC) and in Brunei by the Baidun Bank, BoC, BoCHK, BIBD, Maybank, RHB Bank SCB UOB and Perbadanan Bank.

In addition to these two notes, the following limited numismatic products were also released in Brunei and Singapore;

In Brunei/Singapore:
**Two normal notes B$50/S$50 in soft folder cover at face value each;
(Quantity not sure but it is believed that the folder materials are funded by commercial banks in both Brunei and Singapore and that is why they have released these at face value)

In Brunei
**Coffee Table Book B$50/S$50 notes in hard folder cover = 1,000 sets at B$138 each;
**B$50/S$50 with matching serial numbered = 5,000 sets CIA prefix at B$300 per set;
**B$50 3-in-1 uncut sheet = 2,000 sets at B$400 per set (800 sheets sold in Singapore);
**B$50 8-in-1 uncut sheet = 1,000 sets at B$1,000 each (400 sheets sold in Singapore);
**B$50 40-in-1 uncut sheet = 200 sets at B$4,500 each (100 sheets sold in Singapore).

In Singapore
**B$50/S$50 with matching serial numbered = 5,000 sets CIA prefix at S$300 per set;
**S$50 3-in-1 uncut sheet = 3,000 sets at S$400 per set;
**B$50 3-in-1 uncut sheet = 800 sets at S$400 per set;
**B$50 8-in-1 uncut sheet = 400 sets at S$1,000 each;
**B$50 40-in-1 uncut sheet = 100 sets at S$4,500 each.

All Brunei numismatic products were released on 05.07.2017 and 07.07.2017 by Autoriti Monetari Brunei Darussalam (AMBD) at their HQ, whilst those in Singapore was handled by the Singapore Mint on a pre-order basis made available between 05.07.2017 to 12.7.2017 and released on 18.07.2017. As expected, the demand was oversubscribed in Singapore and as such it went into a balloting system to allocate the lucky winners. I believe this is a fairer system as the previous 2007 $20 CIA commemorative issues were all sold out on day one (first-come-first-serve basis). Some of the Brunei 2017 products were also sold out on the second day of its release.

Fifty Ringgit

CIA Prefix

Obverse; Sultan Haji Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Vanda Miss Joaquim (Singapore's national flower - purple orchid colour), Simpur (Brunei prominent flower - yellowish colour), Brunei Coat of Arms/Crest, 50th Anniversary Logo of CIA. The see-through, colour-shifting window security featuring the Istana Nurul Iman in Brunei and the Istana in Singapore. Prefixes issued - E/1 and E/2. Signature = Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah.

Reverse

Reverse; Defense (4 military personnel in ceremonial uniform), tourism (floating bridge at Ulu Temburong National Park - Green Jewel of Brunei) and (gazebo [bandstand] at Singapore Botanic Gardens, founded in 1859 - UNESCO World Heritage site) and education (4 students studying together).

Fifty Dollars

CIA Prefix

Observe; First President Yusof bin Ishak, Vanda Miss Joaquim (Singapore's national flower - purple orchid colour), Simpur (Brunei prominent flower - yellowish colour), Singapore Coat of Arms/Crest, 50th Anniversary Logo of CIA. The see-through, colour-shifting window security featuring the Istana Nurul Iman in Brunei and the Istana in Singapore. Prefixes issued - 50AA, 50AB, 50AC, 50AD and 50AE. Signature = Tharma Shanmugaratnam.

Reverse

Reverse; Defense (4 military personnel in ceremonial uniform), tourism (floating bridge at Ulu Temburong National Park - Green Jewel of Brunei) and (gazebo [bandstand] at Singapore Botanic Gardens, founded in 1859 - UNESCO World Heritage site) and education (4 students studying together).

The two notes basically feature the same design elements and layout and are predominantly gold in colour to signify the golden jubilee celebration.

Note* - Despite this agreement having been in place for 50 years, for some reasons, not all people in Singapore are eagerly willing to accept the Brunei currency on a day to day transactions, especially the younger generations. I believe this is mainly due to ignorance as many of them may not be aware that such an arrangement has been in place since 1967.

These two notes were designed by Encik Abdul Ajihis Haji Terawih (Bruneian) and a father and son team, Mr Eng Siak Loy and Mr Weng Ziyan (both Singaporeans). This project was first
started in late 2015.

...Singapore - $10 Tharma Shanmugaratnam ND2016 3-Uncut Sheet

Singapore $10 Uncut sheet of 3 with the tiny symbol of two solid houses at the back. It appears that the single note with this symbol has not been signed in public circulation yet. This uncut sheet bears the signature of Tharma Shanmugaratnam. The other 2 polymer uncut sheets for $2 and $5 have been released. Total quantity printed/issued; 450

Ten Dollars (Two Solid Houses symbol)

ND2016, P48m

Reverse

...Singapore - $5 Uncut Sheet of 3 Polymer, s. Tharma Shanugaratnan

Uncut sheet of 3, with 500 sheets printed. Not rare. This single note was first reported in 2013.

Five Dollars (two triangles symbol)

ND2013, P47c

Reverse

...Singapore - $2 Uncut Sheet of 3 Polymer, s. Tharma Shanugaratran

Another numismatic product of the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Whilst only 500 sheets printed, they are neither rare or hard to find. It's just a matter of how much you are willing to pay for. In addition to this, there are also uncut sheets of 60 issued too, and this is limited to 100 sheets. Here the sheet posted all have Birthday serial numbers of 8 8 1936. You would be 80 years old this year.

Two Dollars

ND2015

Reverse, Two-Diamond Symbol