25 Cents

The Board of Commissioners of Currency was established in 1938 to issue a unified currency across British Malaya and the Straits Settlements, replacing the fragmented note issues of individual state treasuries. Printing locally through the Survey Department in Kuala Lumpur was a practical choice for low-denomination notes — the same department produced maps and administrative documents for the colonial government.

Japanese forces occupied Malaya in early 1942, and surviving Commissioners notes were rapidly displaced by the infamous "banana money" occupation issues. The 1940 series had been in circulation less than two years when the British administration collapsed at Singapore in February 1942.