Many Malaysian collector don't know, nobody know everything in numismatic. When meeting coin sifu, dealer or old collectors, most Malaysian collectors think they will get the answer that they want especially when they asked for coin appraisal. Numismatic in Malaysia are little bit different from United States, they have many books, websites and blogs that can help them refer the price of certain item. In Malaysia, books a very scarce thing, only 3 Authors/Publishers who frequently write a price guide for Malaysian Collector; Steven Tan, K.N Boon and Eureka Metro Sdn Bhd. They don't cover all the coins and banknotes of Malaysia, mostly only the current coins and banknotes. Malaysia have many old tin coins, tampang, gold coins, old silver coins or even Malay states coins. Even for the error circulation coins, they're no actual price guide by anyone.
When a collector go to Amcorp Mall and asked about their coin price, most of them expect the dealers there to be able to help them. Many don't realize when you asked the dealers about your coins, they will bring out either Steven Tan or K.N Boon book for reference. It will not be a problem if the coin is in that book but when it come to tin coins, some of them don't have any knowledge and quote a low price for your coins. They're also some dealers in Amcorp Mall who don't know how to check if your coin is genuine or fake. Some of them is pure "coin seller" without a slight knowledge of numismatic. If you don't believe me and you have a beautiful copper coin in a slab that you bought at cheap price, open it and bring your coin for appraisal in Amcorp Mall. You will be amazed with some of the dealers explanation. I done it before for my blog work but I don't write or post about it because it will humiliate the dealers and maybe ruined their business. Don't worry, only one or two dealers in there who don't have knowledge about numismatic.
When come to old collectors, Malaysian automatically called them as sifu because they're older. Old doesn't mean he/she know many thing about numismatic, its just an age/years that they have live in this world. Some of them maybe start collecting a few years back. Whenever you asked for an opinion about numismatic from an old guys who you just started to know/meet recently, make sure you asked for second opinion. Some of them are trying to mislead you, to make sure they gain a fans and making it easy to sell their coins. Some people just want to manipulate and gain something especially if you already have many collector friends.
Do you know how many kind of coins that we have for collection in Malaysia? Some Sifu only knew few parts since they don't collect or study them all. For example, Sifu Dickson Niew (Have you read KOSMO yesterday?; Dickson Niew in KOSMO) only have expertise in Malaysia Parliament and Bunga Raya counterfeit and error coins (correct me if I am wrong). You can talk Malaysia Token with him but if he don't know anything about it, he need to asked other expert. You cannot expect all the Sifu know everyhing. For Malaysia coin error, I wish Sifu Dickson Niew can write a price guide to coin collector since they're already many error collectors in Malaysia but we don't have any book to guide us.
If you read my about me page, I already told everyone, I am not an expert, I am just a normal collector like you. What I wrote in this blog came from my reading and from a chat with some of the Sifu's. Most of Malaysia coin expert don't want to be known/famous, lucky for you, they want to share their knowledge with me. With sifu Dickson Niew in Malaysia Collector Blogsphere (dniewcollectors.blogspot.com), at least we have one Sifu with a blog. Hopefully many will come out this year. The more blogger sharing their expertise, the more good it will bring to all collectors. I found some other experts Malaysian Collector Blogs few months ago but sadly, he stop writing since last year.
Nobody know everything in numismatic, do you agree?
PS: To new collectors out there, don't be racist if you want to collect numismatic knowledge. Yes.., we have a lots of chinese sifu but that doesn't mean they come from China. They're Malaysian, you should thank them for trying to teach you about Malay tin coins not giving sarcastic view about their races.
