They're some collectors who ask me, why they're many replacement banknotes for the new Malaysia banknotes even before the official launch date on 16 July 2012. They said they can find many people selling ZA replacement banknotes for the new series banknote online via Facebook, eBay or Mudah.my. They even asked Malaysia Central Bank (BNM) via Facebook about that matter and luckily, BNM reply them. I don't think you really need to ask such question to anyone since you can answer it using your common sense as a collector. Before you read the rest of this post, you need to know, I am not a prefix or replacement banknotes collector. This is just my personal opinion and that doesn't mean it is what actually happen in BNM.
Here what Central Bank of Malaysia reply:
1. Thank you for your interest in the new series Malaysian banknotes.
2. As you maybe aware, to mark the introduction of the new currency series, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) has issued three types of commemorative banknote collections, namely
- A collection of two banknotes (RM1 and RM5 denomination) - 500,000 sets
- A collection of a single banknote (RM20 denomination) - 500,000 sets
- A collection of six banknotes (RM1, RM5, RM10, RM20, RM50 and RM100 denominations) - 50,000 sets
The banknotes issued are legal tender and the collections went on sale to public starting from 22 December 2011.
3. With regards to the banknotes being sold in online marketplace even before the introduction of the new series into circulation, we suspect that the banknotes were part of the commemorative banknote collections. The banknotes bearing serial numbers ZA are normally used by printers to replace banknotes which are found to be defective during printing; in line with the quality standards practiced by BNM.
4. The replacement banknotes are legal tender and members of the public are urged to use all banknotes issued by the Bank with confidence.
Source: Bank Negara Malaysia Official Facebook.Before we talk further, you need to understand what is replacement banknote:
A replacement banknote is a banknote that is printed to replace a faulty one and is used as a control mechanism for governments or monetary authorities to know the exact number of banknotes being printed. As quality control finds defective notes in the printing process after the serial number has been overprinted, they are taken out with their serial number written down and replaced with another banknote printed specifically for this purpose, so that the amount of banknote being printed stays the same in each production batch. This saves time and money compared to re-printing exactly the same serial number that was used before. It is rare that the replacement banknote has the same serial number as the original faulty one. A replacement note will have its own serial numbering system that separates it from the normal numbering system.
Source: Wikipedia.
In layman term, when a banknote printed, they're people who inspect that notes for quality control, if the notes don't pass the quality, a new notes will be printed with a new replacement banknote serial number. I can think two possibilities what are the reasons we can see many ZA replacements for the new banknotes:
- All the printers maybe have a very strict quality control, any defective notes will be taken out from distribution before it enter circulation. In the end,we have a very high quality banknotes in circulation. The replacements might be easy to find but error or freak notes will be a very rare item.
- The new banknotes has a very low quality and can easily torn or damaged. That possibilities happened if we take into consideration BNM reply that the new replacement banknote came from the premier set. I heard rumours before, some people say not all premier set sold by BNM since some of the set has defect on some of the notes. The printer cannot print the same serial number twice.
