I had visited Penang 3 times this year for my coin hunting trip. This year it has been a good year for my coin and banknote hunting trip since I almost completed my wishlist for 2009. In May 2009 I visited KOMTAR or in Malay: Kompleks Tun Abdul Razak. Some people called it as KOMTAR Tower (Menara KOMTAR in Malay). KOMTAR is Penang's tallest building and the sixth tallest building in Malaysia. It is located in the heart of George Town. When the skyscraper topped out it was the tallest building in Asia, by the time construction was completed in 1986 it had however been surpassed by Seoul's Korean Life Insurance Building (KLI 63 Building). The 65-storey tower is a 12-sided geometric block, 760ft (232m) tall, sitting atop a 4-storey podium.
There is at least 4 Money Changer and 2 coin and banknote dealer in KOMTAR. I only manage to take picture of two places since I am in a hurry that early morning. Will be updating The other 4 places when I visited KOMTAR next time. Do any of you remember about how a coin dealer sell a coin based on their weight? One of the coin dealer I am talking about is Picton Philatelic in KOMTAR.
Picton Philatelic is situated on 1st floor near a stair to Penang Road. You can see the signboard from the stair. They sale many item including proof coin, commemorative coin, world paper money, world coins, 1st day cover, world stamps, tools for numismatic and philatelic collecting. They have many Malaysia banknote, Malaysia coin and Straits settlements coins for sale. I had been looking for Straits Settlements 50 cents King Edward VII coin 1902 or 1903 with him but he don't have any for sale.
You can buy this world coins for RM120.00 per Kilo. The only rule is that you cannot choose the coin just put them in the small container and then weight it. If you want to choose the coin that you want it will be a different price regarding on what coin that you choose. I saw some straits settlements coins and some silver coins in the big container. It is worth to try if you want to teach your kids to start loving this collecting hobbies.
Since their shop named Philatelic, most of the time you can see people coming in and looking for stamp in there. You can see many kinds of stamps and 1st day cover from all over this world in his shop. I am not into stamp but I can see some Malaya and Straits Settlements stamp. That is consider a good stamp for collecting, is it? I rarely buy from this shop but I do think that their price is still cheaper then some shop in Penang.
You can find Evertrust Gems paradise money changer using the same stairs to Picton Philatelic. It is on the ground floor near Penang road. You can see banknote and coin they're selling on the back of their counter. Most of the time, you can find rare banknote with them but their prices is a bit high and you cannot negotiate their price. At the time I am coming, i can see many Malaysia old banknote and one straits settlements 1930 banknote.
