Vintage Singapore Magazine - The Mirror

I never knew that Singapore used to have a weekly almanac of current affairs. For a young country, this magazine seems to be one of the important magazines that illustrates and showcases our progress to all our citizens. In 1967, we have the first batch of Officers graduating from the Officer Cadet School, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew giving a speech as the Prime Minister and Dr. Goh Keng Swee inspecting the commissioning parade of the first batch of our army officers. This was a very good read and I believe it marked a very significant milestone in our Singapore history. This magazine didn't come cheap, but I felt that it was definitely worth what I have spent!

Singapore Previous 5 Dollars Banknotes

Many people would know about the different varieties of the Singapore Orchid 5 dollar (3 different signatures, 4 varieties), however not many people know about the different variety of the Singapore Ship 5 dollars. In the scan, zooming into the serial number, one can find a distinct difference in the font, size and spacing of the serial number. This is because the notes are printed by different printers, namely Thomas De La Rue and Harrison & Sons Ltd, the latter being the later issue.

Vintage 1964 Singapore Sweepstakes

I bought this sweepstake ticket today and its interesting to note that the denomination is actually quite large. $1 back then can easily buy you a few bowls of noodles. I wonder how much was the prize money to entice people to fork out a dollar for this sweepstake ticket. Comparing it to the sweepstakes now (which costs a few dollars), the cost of buying one of these sweepstakes did not increase so much as compared to other things, such as our housing and cars.

Malaya & British Borneo "Buffalo" 10 Dollars Banknote

Malaya & British Borneo 10 Dollars Banknote features a buffalo and a farmer and is a recent sough after Malaya note due to its beautiful design. This note has also been used as images on red packets and numerous posters due to its attractiveness and bright colours. The price of this note has been steadily increasing and has even overtook the 1953 Malaya Queen Elizabeth 10 dollars note, though its a 1961 issue.

This note in this post is an Extra Fine note with sharp edges and strong paper. This note is not easily found in this condition nowadays, with many notes being VF and below.

Background

The Malaya and British Borneo dollar (known as the ringgit in Malay, Jawi:رڠڬيت) was the currency of Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak, British North Borneo and Brunei from 1953 to 1967. The currency was issued by the Board of Commissioners of Currency, Malaya and British Borneo. Prior to 1952, the board was known as the Board of Commissioners of Currency, Malaya.

The Malaya and British Borneo dollar was used in Malaya after independence in 1957, and in Malaysia after its formation in 1963, as wll as in Singapore after its independence in 1965. After 1967, the two countries and Brunei ended the common currency arrangement and began issuing their own currencies. However, the Malaya and British Borneo dollar continued to be legal tender until 16 January 1969.

Singapore Ship Series (3rd Series) 1 Dollar Notes

This post will feature the more recent Ship Series. Contrary to popular belief, not all Dr. Goh Keng Swee's variety of notes fetch a high price. In this case, the ship series 1 dollar, almost all notes are signed by Dr. Goh. The more valuable variety will be the 1 signed by Dr. Richard Hu. This is because for this ship dollar, A/1 till D/14 are signed by Dr. Goh while D/14- D/20 are signed by Dr. Richard Hu. The supply of Dr. Hu's notes is much lesser as compared to Dr. Goh's.

Another interesting point is that the signature crosses over at D/14, thus D/14 notes are more collectible as it is termed the Cross-Over Prefix.

Vintage Working Singapore Telecom Biege Rotary Phone

Vintage Working Singapore Telecom Beige Rotary Phone

The rotary dial is a device mounted on or in a telephone or switchboard that is designed to send electrical pulses, known as pulse dialing, corresponding to the number dialed. The early form of the rotary dial used lugs on a finger plate instead of holes. A patent was filed on August 20, 1896 by employees of Almon Strowger, namely, A. E. Keith and the brothers John and Charles Erickson. The Patent No. 597,062 was granted on January 11, 1898.

The modern version of the rotary dial with holes was first introduced in 1904 but only entered service in the Bell System in 1919. The rotary dial was gradually supplanted by Touch Tone dialing, introduced at the 1962 World's Fair, which uses a keypad instead of a dial. Some telephone systems in the US no longer recognize rotary dialing by default, but will only support push-button phones instead, in which case the rotary dialing system would have to be ordered from the telephone company as a special feature, to support older customer equipment. However most actually do accept dial phoning without fail.

Singapore Bird Series $5 Banknote

One of my favourite notes thus far. This note has serial no of 67 (low no) which corresponds to the prefix A/67. This note is special to me as the number 67 is an integral part of my life.