Yesterday, when I check further in the net after posting my post; Kilang Wang Malaysia, I found out that recently, they're few politic news site talking about the new coins. It almost half a year since the new coin has been released into circulation (you can read it here; new coin circulate 16 January 2012). Most of them are discussing many thing that I had been sharing in here before. In this post, I will be compiling all their questions and try to give the answer. If you like it, you can share it with them. I don't like politic even though I study politic. I am not related to any political party but I am one of the guy who think it is really annoying to watch our local news full of politic everyday, even when the elections are already 4 years ago and the new election date still cannot be confirm. Government is throwing money to people and the opposition is trying to make Malaysia look bad to the worlds. When the new coin became political issue, I think collector like us will be laughing by some of the political leader statement, they're making jokes that only we can understand. It will be a waste of time explaining it to them since they have their own agenda but I do think we need to share the real situation in numismatic point of view since we are talking about coins not politic.
Do we (Malaysian) need new coins?
Malaysia Parliament coins series (1st series) were introduced in 12 June 1967. Malaysia Bunga Raya coins series (2nd series) were issued on 4 September 1989. Its over 23 years since the 2nd series coins has been issued by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM). Do you know how many 50 sen counterfeit coins in your pocket right now? Coin design normally change after 20 years because normally it will be easy for counterfeiter to make a fake coins since the technology has change. Some of the Fake Bunga Raya coins are hard to differentiated from the original coins, especially for non collector. You can read more about this at my post; Do Malaysia need new coins?
Why the color of the new coin fading?
In my opinion, BNM don't take into consideration about using Nickel brass metal coin in a humid condition like Malaysia. The coin will look nice when it is new but it will begin to corrode and tarnish over time. It is the same thing as our old 1 sen copper coin but when a gold color coin became black in color, people will start to think they found a counterfeit coins like what Guan Ming Daily report before;Reporter-Please Do Research First.
The new coins can be magnetized?
Some of them are arguing that the new coins especially the new 5 sen and 10 sen can attracted to magnet and can be magnetized. I don't know if they put their coins in a magnet bowl or something but do magnetic coins really matter? How many percent of chance that your coins has change into magnet? Wasn't BNM make the coin magnetic because it will make it easy for you to find the coins if you loose any? just put your magnet and all the coins will come to you. To make sure the new coin cannot be magnetized, I start an experiment about this today and will share the result after a month.
Smaller size and lighter weight then the old one.
When BNM want to make it smaller and lighter, in my opinion, their intention is to make it easy for us to bring the new coins everywhere. They forget the fact that lighter mean it will be easy for the coins to be lost if we drop the coin on the floor. I don't think many Malaysian really like to bring a lot of coins in their pocket nowadays, that is just a personal opinion. BNM should make a survey about this, is lighter coins is better for Malaysian?
The size of 50 sen and 20 sen almost the same.
I think when the new coins has been release into circulation, many people were giving the same feedback; 50 sen look like 20 sen and 10 sen look like 5 sen. They're only slight weight and diameter difference between those coins. We are in transitional period, it will take a few months for everyone to get use with the new coins. I will try to make a post on how to make it easy for everyone to differentiate the new coins and share it in here later.
Who got contract for the new coin?
That question already been answered by Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Donald Lim Siang Chai on October 2011 at Dewan Rakyat, "The supplier which has been selected to supply the coins is Poogsan Corporation, South Korea, and the coins are minted at the Bank Negara Malaysia mint in Shah Alam. The suppliers for the new series Malaysian banknotes are Crane AB, Sweden; Giesecke & Devrient GmbH, Germany; Oberthur Technologies, France, and Orell Fussli, Switzerland," You can read more about it in Malaysia banknote printer reveal.
Why Bank Negara Malaysia don't take out old Malaysia coin from circulation?
The new coin will be circulating with the old coins, Bank Negara Malaysia will take out the old coins phase by phase. It will cost us more money if BNM change all the coin instantly. We most probably will have a coin shortage too. Have you check how many pieces of coin were minted by Bank Negara each years? You can find information about Malaysia coin mintage at my other blog, www.malaysiancoin.com.
New 10 sen related to Israel flag?
Some were saying, the new 10 sen Malaysia coin design, look like an Israel flag symbol, blue Star of David. Last time they saidBNM logo come from Pharoah dog. Another funny thing is that they drew the Star of David on the new 10 sen coin, to make it look like the Judaism symbol. You can read BNM Official reply on 10 sen orang asli motif resemblance Israel Star of David here;BNM reply about new duit syiling issue.
Problem using the new coins at auto pay machine?
You can contact BNM if you find any autopay machines which could not accept the New Malaysia Coins at their hotline 03-2690 7307 or 03-2698 8044 (ext 8252). If you can, record the place, owner (normally they're sticker of the company who do the maintenance of the machine) and your problem. The machine operator should calibrate their machine last year, they have already given 6 months to calibrate their machine. The problem with some Malaysia auto pay machines company are that they buy cheap old machine that cannot be calibrate.
