BNM announce Malaysia new coin 2011

Today, Bank Negara Malaysia BNM announced Malaysia New Coins & Banknotes this year. After many people has been speculating about the new Malaysia currency release date and design. Some information that I get said that the new notes will have Sabah and Sarawak culture/motif as its main design. Whatever the new design is, let just hope it will look more beautiful then the current banknotes & coins that had been circulated since 1989.

Picture: Malaysia old coin design from Dickson book collection.

Here is the announce by BNM website:

Bank Negara Malaysia is pleased to announce that a new series design of Malaysian banknotes and coins will be issued for circulation in early 2012, an exercise that is undertaken periodically every twelve years. The theme of the design of the new currency series will include features that are distinctively Malaysia. It will also have enhanced security elements in line with the latest advancements in technology for currency notes.

The new fourth series design of banknotes will be featured in the denomination of RM1, RM5, RM10, RM20 and RM100. The current design of the RM50 banknote already in circulation since December 2007 to commemorate Malaysia’s 50th Anniversary of Independence will continue to remain in circulation. The new design coins are the third in the series for the denominations of 5 sen, 10 sen, 20 sen and 50 sen. This new series of banknotes and coins will co-circulate with the existing series until the latter are gradually withdrawn from circulation.

In preparation for the issuance of the new currency series, Bank Negara Malaysia will be working closely with financial institutions, businesses and cash handling vendors to ensure a smooth transition to the new series. Vendors of cash handling machines will be given six months to calibrate their machines to ensure public convenience for the use of the new currency.

As part of the effort to increase public awareness on the new currency series, Bank Negara Malaysia will issue the commemorative coins for the third series and unveil the new fourth series banknotes design in the third quarter of 2011.

Source: BNM.

I think everyone in Numismatic world will be waiting for the new Malaysia Coin & banknote 2011. No actual photo release has been published by BNM. Hopefully we can see it in a news tommorow.

1800 British sovereigns gold coins?

Construction workers in Port city of Albany, Australia south west coast found around 400 pieces of 1800 British sovereigns gold coins. Police are trying to determine who owns a treasure-trove of gold coins unearthed from a building site on Australia's southwest coast. Initial reports said the sovereigns dated back to the year 1800, and were worth more than $500,000. Albany was the first settlement in WA, established in December 1826, even before the Swan River colony which led to the Perth's early development.

Western Australia state police spokesman Gerry Cassidy said workers found the 400 British sovereigns last week while digging a ditch in the port city of Albany. They handed them to the property owner who is claiming ownership. Cassidy said Wednesday police are checking law books to determine whether the property owner or even a museum is entitled to keep the coins, dated 1800 — 26 years before Albany was settled by Europeans.

"Police have got to work out exactly how they handle it," Cassidy said.

He said an appraiser valued one of the coins at 16,000 Australian dollars ($17,000) but did not have an estimate for all of the coins.

Brett Joins, chief executive of Wauters Enterprises, confirmed his construction company had given the coins to local businessman Paul Lionetti.

"An exhaustive search was completed of the site and no other items were found," Joins told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. Lionetti could not immediately be contacted for comment Wednesday.

Police have no theories on how the coins came to be buried in Albany. Cassidy said the coins were found individually and did not appear to have been buried in a container.

Adrian Rose, of Paul Fraser Collectibles, said that British gold sovereigns were first minted in 1817, “so the 1800 date mentioned is a bit of a mystery - probably a misquote, I would think. There are also questions over the number of coins involved with some reports saying 300, others 400. Based on 400 coins the bullion value of the gold would be in excess of £86,000; the value of the coins on the collectors markets would be considerably more. The value of this find will depend on the exact date of the coin. For example a single 1817 gold sovereign sold for £340 at auction in the UK in February 2011, so the value of the whole collection could be over £100,000.”

Albany, which is around 400km south of Perth, was the first European settlement in Western Australia, and was established by the British in 1826 to try and prevent French forces from taking an interest in the area. Until 1900, it was home to the only deep-water port in Western Australia. British sovereigns were used in Australia until 1855, when the Sydney Mint started to produce its own version of the coins, featuring a unique Australian design.

Source: The Associated Press, BBC News, Herald Sun.

Banknote forger ordered to give cash

Father and son, John and Craig Farrell were jailed after admitting producing counterfeit cash in Scotland. John Farrell, 53, from Glasgow, was sentenced to nearly six years in jail for producing fake banknotes. The convicted forger who ran a huge counterfeiting operation from a factory in East Kilbride has been ordered to hand over nearly £100,000. A confiscation order has been made against Farrell at the High Court in Edinburgh for £96,000, the Crown Office said.

Picture: John and Craig Farrell.

Following the hearing, Lesley Thomson, area procurator fiscal for Glasgow, warned dealing in counterfeit currency was "not a victimless crime".

She said: "It can cause hardship and misery, particularly in difficult financial times.

"It is our duty to ensure that no one trying to profit from crime should succeed.

"We are determined to pursue any financial benefits gained from illegal activity."

In July 2009 Farrell was sentenced to five years and eight months for producing counterfeit notes at EWM Solutions, in East Kilbride.When police raided the premises in February 2008 they discovered counterfeit Bank of Scotland £20 notes, fake Royal Bank of Scotland £20 notes and Bank of Scotland £10 notes and Royal Bank of Scotland £10 notes in various stages of completion. In total, police unearthed £185,000 of counterfeit money. Some of the counterfeit money had been used at a number of places in Newton Mearns and Glasgow. His son Craig, who also admitted making the notes, was jailed for two years and nine months.

Source: BBC News

Chile new 1000 peso banknote

Chile' s Central Bank on Wednesday launched a new 1,000 peso banknote, the last of five new notes the bank has gradually introduced during the last year, the central bank director said at a press conference. The note marks the change of banknotes in Chile for the first time in 30 years and was made to reflect the modernization the Chilean society has gone through in the last three decades, said Central Bank President Jose de Gregorio.

The obverse of this currency shows the portrait of Ignacio Carrera Pinto this time based on a portrait by Juan Manuel Huidobro in 1982 from the collection of the Military Academy. It also incorporates Copihue heart, Antú national flower and symbol representing the sun Mapuche that fertile land in the same position as the bills of 2,000 and 5,000 pesos.

The reverse shows an image of Torres del Paine National Park, known world biosphere reserve located in the Magallanes region, noted for its spectacular scenery and rock formations that make it a unique tourist destination with great international reputation. For its part, the fauna is represented by the image of a guanaco, ruminant mammal that inhabits the Andes between Peru and Tierra del Fuego.

"This is a new family of bank notes which from the art and design reflects a pattern that identify the Chilean culture and give it a modern image," said de Gregorio.

"It has been of great pride for the bank to be able to realize this change of bank notes," he said, adding that the five new bank notes have been made in accordance with technology that is compatible to security standards required by international financial standards.

A total of 34 million 1000 peso notes on Wednesday entered into circulation while the existing 140 million notes currently in circulation will gradually be withdrawn. The change of bank note has cost the central bank 1.5 million U.S. dollars and a total of 600 million new notes have been printed.

Source: China Daily, Chile Central Bank.

Algeria New 2000 Dinar banknote

The Bank of Algeria has issued a banknote of two thousand (2000) dinars elements with the most current in design, reliability and security. The Algeria new 2000 Dinar Banknote said to have the latest security features. It has been released last week on 28 April 2011. On the obverse, it has a Figures: "2000" positioned vertically on the right side of the sticker and horizontally on the bottom left of the thumbnail. With Science and technology pictures. On the Reverse, it has a Figures: "2000" positioned vertically on the left side of the ticket, and a guilloche on the bottom of the band filigree. With picture of vectors of endogenous development.

As part of improving the circulation and security of banknotes, the Bank of Algeria had already brought upon issuance of the final cut, the elements of art security, including:

• the watermark,
• the safety wire to window
• micro-printing,
• the guilloches,
• impressions invisible under natural light, but revealing under ultra-violet (UV) and in infrared (IR)
• show through,
• the band holographic
• tactile elements, for easier recognition for the blind.

Nevertheless, and given the recent introduction of reproductive material and computer forgery attempts have been discovered. If these counterfeit products are quickly identified by professionals (Agents of Banks and post Algeria, security services and merchants ...), it is not always the case of users 'general public' do not take enough precautions to verify the existence of the security features yet sufficiently apparent, including: the watermark, security thread and hologram. To overcome this situation, almost universally, the Bank of Algeria, for its part, decided in order to better knowledge of signs Recognition and safety by the general public, to provide even the main elements which are elements of authentication.

In addition, this new issue of a banknote from 2000 dinars will allow:

1. Increase the supply of fiat money.
2. Enrich the range of banknotes passing five denominations (100 AD, 200 AD, 500 AD, 1000 AD and 2000 AD)
3. Strengthen refreshing the cash.
4. Modernize the ticket as the series of cuts in circulation back in the 90,
5. Strengthen the fight against counterfeiting,
6. Provide a break in tune with technological developments in this field.

In addition, the new banknote, includes security features such as:

• Security Fund on the front and the back up of geometric figures, guilloche patterns, micro-printing, graphic and numismatic. The bottom safety covers on both sides of the thumbnail area and band filigree
• Watermark
• Wireless Security
• Holographic Strip.

This new note will include other additional elements of security on board.