It is a two generation collection started circa 1960 in Penang by C.J. Khaw,
who served a 37 year career with the Penang Singapore Harbour Board, and retired
as a senior Manager with the Penang Port Commission following the split of Singapore from Malaysia.
Originally the collection was rudimentary, and housed in Van Heusen card boxes of
shirts purchased from the then Whiteaways Departmental store. Over the next 40 years,
C.J. Khaw added substantially to his collection, first buying outright a worldwide
collection of minors and crowns assembled in Dublin from a local doctor who trained there,
then buying from dealers in Malaysia & Singapore such as Tan Trading, Dynasty Coins, and
international dealers such as Carol Plante, Dennis Gill, James Elmen, and auction houses such
as Henry Christensen of New York, Ruddy & Bowers Galleries, Superior, The Money Company, Taisei,
Spink, and Heritage auctions among many others.
C.J.Khaw collected coins simply because he loved the history and geography associated with it,
and made several lifelong friendships along with his coin collection. A few coins were gifts
from relatives and lifelong friends, or exchange of coins with like minded collectors.
The collection was subsequently split into several parts, although the pre-1900 coins were largely
passed to his elder son, who continued collecting sporadically in Singapore since the 1980s.
The younger Khaw had similar interest in history and geography. A regional career in finance,
and with the development of the internet, afforded the younger Khaw more opportunities to fill
in collection gaps when these presented.
The Khaw collection of Chinese coins or rather, Dragon themed coins presented here is one of the
larger portions of the collection, and it is hoped, will provide its new owners to-be as much pleasure
in collecting, and wonderment as it has for the last 50 years.
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