The Khaw Collection Part 2 – British Trade Dollars & early Malaysia Proofs.
Mavin International and I worked together to prepare, and also to pen my thoughts for this specialized collection of circulation British Trade Dollars (BTDs). While some common dates are graded mint state (MS), there are also several scarce or rare MS graded dates, date types, overdates, re-engraved dates or wave pattern difference.
In the early 1980s a rare collecting opportunity arose when the Hunt brothers drove silver prices to US$50+ per ounce, the exchange rate then was Sin$2+: US$1. In Malaysia, many silver items including coins were smelted into crude home-made pure silver tongue bars, in a mania of “silver investing”. An incredible surge of minor and silver crowns were then offered by newbie coin dealers, or rather bullion dealers.
Among the bullion coins, my late father and I examined hundreds of BTDs, most of which were common dates in GVF-EF+ condition. Partly to oblige these dealers, and also to pick the best possible grade BTDs for sequence date collecting, we paid a premium over the Hunt brothers’ silver prices. Whenever a collecting opportunity arose, we augmented these with purchases of scarce BTDs from established coin dealers and auction houses. This resulting collection of BTDs was distilled from the selective purchase of over 200 BTDs.
Generally, mint state graded pre-1913 BTDs are increasingly hard to come by, regardless of whether these are common dates. All C mintmark, and overdates are scarce, some rare. There are also rare no B no C date types. Post - 1913 BTDs are commonly seen in UNC grades.
With exacting standards of 3rd party grading, several choice condition BTDs in my collection did not make MS when graded, only for the reason of “Surface Hairlines” which in many cases are barely visible without magnification. These include auction purchased, UNC 1930/30B recut and UNC 1934B. The 1895, 1895B, 1897 no B, 1898 no B, 1901C, 1902C and several 1904 overdates are scarce, and often found in EF and lower grades. The 1934B, once deemed rare since few were released for circulation, are usually found in UNC grades and there are now enough of them around to be considered scarce only.
1897 and 1898 no Bs: these two coins in good grades are so much scarcer than transacted prices suggest. The few found usually are EF grade and lower. At times, the 1897 and 1898 no Bs advertised were found to be typographical errors – they were actually regular mintmark B. Scarcer still, especially in higher grades are the 1896B, 1900C, 1904B, 1913B, 1904/898B, 1904/890B, and 1929/1B. I have had not the pleasure to inspect the last two overdates - my own example that I purchased as an unslabbed 1929/1B has been graded 1929/9B, a re-engraved piece. In addition to this, my collection contains several undocumented re- engraved date types.
The 1900 no B, no C, and the 1900/1000B, 1913/2B overdates are rare, the last two overdates very rarely encountered. The 1896 no B is unlisted; I believe the ”1896B” offered in this collection could be such an example, even though it has been slabbed as 1896B. If indeed it turns out to be 1896 no B, it would be rare. Out of numismatic interest, I invite you to scrutinize this piece because I still can’t see the “B”!
Five early Malaysia proofs collected during the 1969-1976 period of issue are on offer; these are without the boxes because the early Malaysia limited proofs were individuals’ VIP presentation box pieces that found their way into the collectors’ market sans box. Like some of the BTDs, three of the early Malaysia proofs obtained exceptionally high grades for collecting. Good luck!
T K Khaw
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