1 Cent - Charles V. Brooke Rajah

Charles Vyner Brooke had only recently assumed the Rajahship when this cent was struck — his father Charles Anthony Johnson Brooke died in May 1917 after ruling Sarawak for nearly half a century. The 1920 issue arrived as Sarawak was rebuilding its economy following the sharp disruptions of the First World War, during which the state's rubber and sago exports had been severely dislocated. Sarawak under the Brooke Rajahs operated as a personal fiefdom rather than a Crown colony, giving the ruling family autonomous authority to issue coinage entirely independent of British imperial currency policy.

The copper-nickel alloy adopted for this denomination replaced earlier pure copper issues — a material shift driven by postwar metal economics rather than any minting preference.