The Malayan dollar series bearing George VI's portrait was printed by Bradbury Wilkinson before the Japanese invasion of December 1941, but the timing of issue placed these notes directly into one of the most catastrophic currency collapses in British colonial history. The fall of Singapore in February 1942 meant that enormous quantities of currency — including high-denomination notes like this — were either destroyed by retreating British forces or captured intact.
Japanese occupation authorities subsequently issued their own "banana money," rendering all Board of Commissioners currency officially worthless within months of these notes entering circulation.
The Malayan dollar series bearing George VI's portrait was printed by Bradbury Wilkinson before the Japanese invasion of December 1941, but the timing of issue placed these notes directly into one of the most catastrophic currency collapses in British colonial history. The fall of Singapore in February 1942 meant that enormous quantities of currency — including high-denomination notes like this — were either destroyed by retreating British forces or captured intact.
Japanese occupation authorities subsequently issued their own "banana money," rendering all Board of Commissioners currency officially worthless within months of these notes entering circulation.