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Currency history

Straits / Malayan / Malaya–British Borneo dollar

Straits / Malayan / Malaya–British Borneo dollar: a historical unit of account.

Dates in use
Introduction and ending not established
Ancestry branch
Spanish real / peso
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Where this money came from

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4 ancestors · 5 descendants. Follow a name to its history. Select a dated connection for its evidence.

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The story

NLB distinguishes the 1952 Malaya–British Borneo board from its 1953 coinage. [1]

NLB identifies the 1967 end of shared issuance and separate Singapore, Malaysian and Brunei currencies. [2]

Turning points

First issue

NLB dates British trade dollars to 1895, Straits notes to 1899, and local Straits dollar coins to 1903. [3]

Multiple currency unification

The Straits dollar displaced Mexican dollars among several circulating silver-dollar currencies. Other trade-dollar inputs remain to be individually traced; 1899 note issue predates the new coin. [4]

Straits dollar fixed to sterling

The 1906 Commons reply records the Straits dollar fixed at two shillings and fourpence sterling. [5]

Authorization

NLB dates the Malayan board to 1938 and legal issue of its new coins to 24 January 1940. [6]

Replaced by

Successor shared issuance. [1]

Sources and evidence

  1. National Library Board, Singapore · History of Singapore’s currency C171 ↗
  2. National Library Board, Singapore · History of Singapore’s currency C173 ↗
  3. National Library Board, Singapore · History of Singapore’s currency C168 ↗
  4. National Library Board, Singapore · History of Singapore’s currency C956 ↗
  5. UK House of Commons, Hansard · Straits Settlements Currency, 26 November 1906 C169 ↗
  6. National Library Board, Singapore · History of Singapore’s currency C170 ↗

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Cite this page

“Straits / Malayan / Malaya–British Borneo dollar.” The Family Tree of Money. © Field Technologies, Inc. Reader edition 2026-10-13; research dataset v44. https://familytreeofmoney.org/currency/T-FTM000499.html

Editorial evidence supplement · Download dataset v44

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