Yesterday (18 December 2012), I have a chance to visit Mariwasa Kraftangan after receiving an invitation from Dato' Sharuddin Yusof (Dato' Shah), Kelab Warisan Numismatik (KWN) President. A trip to a place that mint coins or print banknotes is one of the activities that have been targeted by the newly form numismatic club.
Eventhough Mariwasa Kraftangan operation or business are more on premium giftware, medals and uniform accesories, they do mint Malaysia commemorative coins during Malaysia Royal Mint era. If any of you remember about Thomas cup commemorative coin, the mint is Mariwasa Kraftangan. Mariwasa Kraftangan also mint Kelantan gold dinar and their own dinar.
I knew, Dato' Shah has been trying to plan a group visit to Bank Negara Mint at Shah Alam but BNM don't allowed public to visit. His successful effort to bring KWN members to the mint is already something that can be given a salute of honour.
The group visit start at Kuala Kangsar riverside resort around 1.00pm with a briefing by Dato' Shah about thing that we cannot do and what we cannot bring in the Mariwasa Kraftangan. Phone with camera, camera and video camera are things that are prohibited to bring in their premises.
In his briefing, Dato' Shah said he will try his best to bring KWN members to BNM Shah Alam mint in the future. Early next year, they already planned a numismatic exhibition in Kuantan and an auction for KWN members. They are also few other activities that I am not sure I can share it in here. In my opinion, KWN will be the most active Malaysia numismatic society in 2013 by looking at what they had been planned.
In his briefing, Dato' Shah said he will try his best to bring KWN members to BNM Shah Alam mint in the future. Early next year, they already planned a numismatic exhibition in Kuantan and an auction for KWN members. They are also few other activities that I am not sure I can share it in here. In my opinion, KWN will be the most active Malaysia numismatic society in 2013 by looking at what they had been planned.
We start to convoy together to Mariwasa Kraftangan at Kawasan Perusahaan Kuala Kangsar around 1.50pm and arrive at the destination at around 2.00pm. When we arrived, En. Nasimudin already wait at the gate and brief us about the company history and operation.
At around 2.30pm, their operation manager, En. Wahab Wahid become our tour guide and bring us to all the operation rooms in their factory. En. Wahab is the person in-charge of the machines operation in their premises. He have a very vast knowledge about how coins are made. I don't have a chance to hear all his explanation about the factory machine and operation because I had been appointed as a cameramen. Mariwasa Kraftangan don't have a big machines like BNM mint but they are well known for producing a beautiful Malaysia coins before.
Today, we don't have a chance to see an actual coin making process since most of the job done by Mariwasa are more on medal. The process are almost the same as coin making but with less work done on the metal.
Here are some photo's and video of the Grabener Coin Press machine in action:
Video Mariwasa Kraftangan Grabener coin press machine in operation:
Thank you to Dato' Shah for the opportunity to join KWN for a visit to Mariwasa Kraftangan today. Its a good experience for me and especially the members of KWN who have a chance to join today visit.
For more photo's of the visit, you can go to my Facebook page album; Mariwasa Kraftangan visit with KWN.
