1 Dollar - Edward VII Large Type

The Straits Settlements dollar was the product of a long-running colonial dispute over monetary control in the Malay Peninsula. For decades, Mexican pesos and various trade dollars circulated freely across the region, frustrating British attempts to impose a unified currency. The colonial government's own dollar, first issued in 1895, was an effort to displace that foreign silver — with limited initial success.

The 1903–1904 issues represent the final years of the large-format dollar before the type was reduced in 1907 to discourage melting and arbitrage driven by silver price fluctuations in the London market.