Anyone Familiar With Malaya 20 Cent Coins From 1943 And 1945?

Hi Aster,

Mintage doesn't always give a true indication of how available a coin is, as can be seen on Numista, by the frequency number. 78% of members own the 1943, but only 27% of members own the 1945. I don't know the reason for this, but maybe the 1945 coins were not all released or were melted down. Maybe someone else has more info.

In 1943, the entire territory of Malaya was under Japanese occupation. Coins were nevertheless produced in 1943 and dated 1943, but were stockpiled in Britain in anticipation of a liberation which unfortunately did not come until the Japanese surrender and peaceful handover at war's end in 1945. The entire stockpile of 1943 coins were then shipped to Malaya and put into circulation, with further coins then minted bearing the 1945 date; the Japanese had withdrawn and melted any pre-occupation silver coins they could find, and issued no coins of their own during the occupation, only now-worthless JIM paper money, so the entire money supply for the territory needed to be renewed and replaced.

Presumably, not all the 1945 coins were actually released to circulation, given the increasing cost of silver. It's worth noting that the silver coins were replaced with cupronickel ones dated 1946. It's likely that sometime in late 1945, after the 10 million coins were struck (but mostly not yet shipped), the decision to replace them with cupronickel coins was made. I'd assume there was some decision that here was no point shipping out the remainder of 1945 if they were just going to be shipped back and melted down again. Or it's possible that they were already shipped, but were obsolete by the time they arrived, so then mostly put back in boxes and shipped back for melting.

You'll notice the liberal use of words like "likely" and "assume" in my post. Sorry I don't have actual facts, but this seems the most probable explanation.

I have one of each coin; a fairly nice (gEF) 1945 20 cents, bought for $7 from a local coin club auction here in Australia in 2011. My 1943 20 cents is in more beat-up condition (a greenish VF) and came in a bulk lot I bought back in 2000.

Hi all, thank you for your inputs.

Seems like there isn't much further information to go on from here. I watched some Youtube videos, they just repeat the same things but without any further elaborations, like:
"1945 version is highly desirable"
"1945 version has higher premium"
"1945 is the key year"

But here are some data I can find online.

NGC website:


Monetarium (Singapore-based auction house):


Muse Atlas (Malaysia-based auction house):

Yes, probably there is almost no market demand and supply elsewhere other than in Singapore and Malaysia

Meanwhile, for graded pieces lower than MS64 they are generally selling for less than SGD 100