Malayan dollar

The Malayan dollar (Malay: ringgit, Jawi: رڠڬيت) was the currency of the British colonies and protectorates in Malaya and Brunei until 1953.

The Malayan dollar was issued by the Board of Commissioners of Currency, Malaya, with a hiatus during the Japanese occupation (1942–1945).

At the time of Japanese invasion, stocks of dollar notes were still held in treasury vaults in Singapore and Penang.

Until 1 April 1946, the country's finances were administrated by the department of the Controller of Finance and Accounts of the Army Pay Corps, and currency was put into circulation against payment in sterling by the War Office to the account of the Board of Commissioners of Currency, Malaya.

The pay service made available currency notes from 1 cent to 10,000 dollars which had been printed in Britain either before, or during, the occupation but had not previously been sent to Malaya.

On 1 September 1940, also an emergency issues of 25 cents was designed and printed by the Survey Department with King George VI as the portrait.

On 1 July 1941, a set of new regular issues, with the denomination of 1, 5, 10, 20 and 50 cents was printed by Thomas de la Rue & Co. Ltd., London with the portrait of King George VI.

Older Straits coinage also continued to circulate alongside, though silver pieces of both types quickly began to disappear.

However, because a shipload of 1 and 5-dollar notes were captured by German forces, only the 10 dollars were issued (see History section above).

When the British regained control of Malaya after World War II, notes were issued in 1945 (dated 1941), in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, 1,000 and 10,000 dollars.