PREVIEW: THE FRANK GOON COLLECTION PART THREE: 22 MARCH

Exactly two years from the S$2.3m (£1.4m) sale of the first part of the Frank Goon Reference Collection of British Malayan Banknotes – and a year on from Part II – it is worth reminding ourselves what Noonans’ Senior Specialist Barnaby Faull said of it at the time: “Without doubt, the finest collection of its type extant today.”

Packed with the rarest non-issued notes – colour trials, die-proofs, essays and one-offs, as well as partially printed proofs and specimens – it covers the banknotes of Malaya, The Straits Settlements, Sarawak, British North Borneo, Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei, including private banks.

 

What singled out the Goon collection of Malayan banknotes from others was the exceptional condition. “Private notes from British Malaya are extremely rare, and if you do find them, they are in appalling condition generally,” said Barnaby Faull. “Frank has managed to accumulate some 40 beautiful examples of the private banks. To find one is difficult; to find as many as Frank has managed to accumulate is remarkable.”

Leading the highlights in the latest Goon catalogue is a Board of Commissioners of Currency, Malaya and British Borneo, $1000, dated 21 March 1953. Carrying the serial number A/1 07972, the obverse depicts Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at right, with orchids in the field, the value at low left and top right, and the Taylor signature lower centre. The reverse features the 16 arms of the Federated Malay States.

About uncirculated, this is truly exceptional – the top graded example on the PMG population report.

Thought to be the largest note ever produced featuring Elizabeth after she became Queen, it is guided at S$100,000-150,000.