British Borneo and Malaya $100

One of my hobbies is obviously, from this photograph, collection of currency notes. This particular note however does not belong to me. How I wish it was. This note is currently on auction on ebay and have about a day left by the time I am writing this. The current auction price is around US$1,058 which I dare say will exceed more than US$3,000 when it closes sometime tomorrow morning.

Not many people remember this even note though this was used widely in Brunei from 1953 to 1967. In 1967, the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien $100 purple note replaced this note issued by the joint Malaya British Borneo Board of Currencies. In those days, all the countries in the region - the Malay states, Sabah, Sarawak, Singapore and Brunei used the same currency and the pact remained for quite sometime even after we issued our own notes in 1967. Unlike today, in those days travelling to Miri or KK does not require us to change currencies at all. But then not many want to go to Miri or KK, they don't have the attractions they have today. Plus driving there in those days require a heavy duty jeep rather than today's saloon car.

Today, $100 notes were used widely. But in the 1950s and 1960s, not many earned that much. I was told that my late father-in-law as a part time Imam in those days received an allowance of $5 per month. My father as an Administrative Officer received barely around $100+ a month. So $100 notes were a rarity. Today, those same $100 notes remained a rarity even in the auction world. The few that came to the market command prices 30 to 50 times their original face value. But then even the 1967 Sultan Omar Ali notes regularly auctions for more than US$500 every time it comes on the market. Keep that $100 notes, they will be worth more 20 years from now.