CURRENCY NOTES, COINS AND TOKENS FROM MALAYA. 125 
It would be necessary to look back very many years to find 
silver at a value even approaching that which it attained in the 
year succeeding the War. 
In 1870 the price per ounce was about 5s. 0d.; in 1880, 4s. 4d. ; 
in 1890, 3s..11d.; in 1900, 2s. 4d.; and in 1910 about 2s. 0d. 
The result of the appreciation was, that, as soon as the silver 
coins current in British Malaya became, as to their silver contents, 
worth more than their face value, they were collected by adventurous 
individuals, sent out of the country and melted down for disposal as 
bullion: and, as these coins were of high silver fineness, this under- 
taking became a profitable one directly the price of silver touched 
about 3s. Od. per ounce: and, although legislation against both export 
and hoarding was soon introduced, such measures were not, it is to be 
feared, of much practical effect. The dollar soon vanished and the 
50, 20, 10 and 5 cent pieces became rapidly scarce: in 1917 the 
shortage began to be very serious whilst the bronze coinage (1, 4 
and 4 cents) commenced also to disappear. The Government was 
faced with a difficult situation in its endeavours to provide a suit- 
able substitute for the disappearing currency. The proposal to 
mint coins of intrinsically very low value could not be immediately 
carried out: the Indian Mints were extremely busy and, though an 
effort was made to obtain assistance from the Royal Siamese Mint 
at Bangkok, no aid could be, owing to technical causes, gained from 
that Institution: indeed it was not until nearly three years later 
that new coins appeared to replace those which had been removed 
from circulation. 
In the meantime something had to be done and the first step was 
the issue of a locally made 10 cent note. These notes were printed 
on rather thick coarse paper of open texture at the Government 
Printing Works, Singapore: they tore easily and quickly absorbed 
dirt and were consequently not very popular. 
They measured about 117 x 76 mm. and were coloured in yel- 
low, green and black on the front and in red on the back. 
The design was very simple: the face of the note has a yellow 
back ground about 87 x 59 mm. in size and consisting of a narrow 
border about 16 mm. in width and, within this, the words “Ten 
Cents” repeated in a series of horizontal lines in small letters. 
Overprinted on this background, in green, hes a narrow green 
border 14 mm. in width: within this in green appears a small 
representation of the Royal Arms at the top in the centre: under- 
neath there runs the phrasing :— 
R. A. Soc., No. 85, 1922. 
