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10 Dollars - George V

Issuer Government of the Straits Settlements
Year 1931-1935
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Reference(s) P#18
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Obverse lettering THE GOVERNMENT OF THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS
PROMISES TO PAY THE BEARER ON DEMAND AT SINGAPORE
TEN DOLLARS
LOCAL CURRENCY FOR VALUE RECEIVED
FOR THE CURRENCY COMMISSIONERS
BRADBURY, WILKINSON & CO Ld ENGRAVERS, NEW MALDEN, SURREY, ENGLAND
票銀庫國叻嶼坡
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Protection type Watermark
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Comments

The Straits Settlements — Penang, Malacca, and Singapore — operated as a Crown Colony under direct British administration, and its currency was managed accordingly through London. Bradbury, Wilkinson produced this series using their characteristic recess-engraved printing, which gives the ink a tactile relief detectable even on heavily circulated examples. The watermark, typically the royal cypher or a crown device, was the primary security measure — modest by later standards but considered adequate for a colonial currency that circulated in a relatively small and commercially concentrated territory.

The 1931 start date places the first issues squarely in the aftermath of Britain's suspension of the gold standard in September of that year, a decision that directly affected the Straits dollar's exchange peg.