Malaysia's first post-independence banknote series was issued in 1967 following the collapse of the Malaya and British Borneo dollar agreement — Brunei, Malaysia, and Singapore had shared a common currency, and when Singapore separated in 1965, the interchangeability arrangement held briefly before breaking down entirely. Each country then moved to its own notes, and Bank Negara issued this series to establish a distinct Malaysian currency for the first time.
Thomas De La Rue's involvement here was entirely typical of British decolonization-era central banking — newly independent states almost universally contracted London security printers before developing domestic capacity. The P#5 100 Ringgit is the highest denomination of that inaugural series, and high-denomination notes from short first series runs tend to survive in disproportionately low numbers relative to their original print quantities.
Malaysia's first post-independence banknote series was issued in 1967 following the collapse of the Malaya and British Borneo dollar agreement — Brunei, Malaysia, and Singapore had shared a common currency, and when Singapore separated in 1965, the interchangeability arrangement held briefly before breaking down entirely. Each country then moved to its own notes, and Bank Negara issued this series to establish a distinct Malaysian currency for the first time.
Thomas De La Rue's involvement here was entirely typical of British decolonization-era central banking — newly independent states almost universally contracted London security printers before developing domestic capacity. The P#5 100 Ringgit is the highest denomination of that inaugural series, and high-denomination notes from short first series runs tend to survive in disproportionately low numbers relative to their original print quantities.