The RM1 coin

When I was in UK, they had this 1 Pound coin which was pretty nice. Sure, you can exchange it for a crisp one pound note is you hated it. But the coin was incredible to hold. When you hold it in your hands, its not to large, not too heavy and also, it just kind of feels right. It was always a sad time when I had to part the coin while making purchases.

When I came back to Malaysia, they had lready started to roll out the same concept; the RM1 coin. It was nice but somehow, it felt very inferior and like the 1 sen coin, it felt and smelt metallic, even on the hands. Compared to the Bristish coin, the RM1 was a let down (for me) just by looking at it, its as if someone just casted in a rush. One thing that I love about the British coin was the almost 3mm edge. The straight edge with the words stamped into it as well. This maybe could be a seciruty feature to stop people counterfeiting it. Then again, I could be wrong.

Sooner or later, the RM1 coin was bound to be counterfeited. And I was right. A few months ago, some poor monkey was caught. And his tools for doing such deed was simple. So, its not a suprise that there were a lot of fake coins in circulation. But to us normal Joe Public, we're either too busy to notice the fakes or we might not even know how to identify them.

Anyway, you might have heard the latest news that the Government is going to take the Rm1 coin out of circulation by December 7. Which is fine until everyone starts to panic. You have Banks trying to "catch" counterfeiters (or in this case, innocent public), charging the consumer for changing the coins and also, traders refusing to accept the coins.



Wifey going through all my loose change (since 1997) for the RM1 coin


RM110 in total!

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