It would be necessary to look back very many years to find silver at a value even approaching that which it attained in the year succeeding the War.
In 1870 the price per ounce was about 5s. 0d.; in 1880, 4s. 4d.; in 1890, 3s. 11d.; in 1900, 2s. 4d.; and in 1910 about 2s. 0d.
The result of the appreciation was, that, as soon as the silver coins current in British Malaya became, as to their silver contents, worth more than their face value, they were collected by adventurous individuals, sent out of the country and melted down for disposal as bullion and, as these coins were of high silver fineness, this undertaking became a profitable one directly the price of silver touched about 3s. 0d. per ounce: and, although legislation against both export and hoarding was soon introduced, such measures were not, it is to be feared, of much practical effect. The dollar soon vanished and the 50, 20, 10 and 5 cent pieces became rapidly scarce: in 1917 the shortage began to be very serious whilst the bronze coinage (1, 12 and 14 cents) commenced also to disappear. The Government was faced with a difficult situation in its endeavours to provide a suit- able substitute for the disappearing currency. The proposal to mint coins of intrinsically very low value could not be immediately carried out: the Indian Mints were extremely busy and, though an effort was made to obtain assistance from the Royal Siamese Mint at Bangkok, no aid could be, owing to technical causes, gained from that Institution: indeed it was not until nearly three years later that new coins appeared to replace those which had been removed from circulation.
In the meantime something had to be done and the first step was the issue of a locally made 10 cent note. These notes were printed on rather thick coarse paper of open texture at the Government Printing Works, Singapore: they tore easily and quickly absorbed dirt and were consequently not very popular.
They measured about 117 × 76 mm. and were coloured in yellow, green and black on the front and in red on the back.
The design was very simple: the face of the note has a yellow back ground about 87 × 59 mm. in size and consisting of a narrow border about 16 mm. in width and. within this, the words "Ten Cents" repeated in a series of horizontal lines in small letters.
Overprinted on this background, in green, lies a narrow green border 14 mm. in width; within this in green appears a small representation of the Royal Arms at the top in the centre: underneath there runs the phrasing:—
