The Straits Times, June 11, 1967
ALL is set for Singapore’s new currency to go into public circulation from Monday as soon as the banks and post offices are open for business.
All banks, which have been steadily handing in the old notes in exchange for new ones, are sufficiently stocked to make all payments in the new notes.
So are the post offices where saving banks depositors will be paid in new notes when they make any withdrawals.
The deputy chairman of the Board of Commissioners of Currency, Mr Chua Kim Yeow, said today:
"We are all ready for the change over to the new currency on Monday. All the banks and the post offices have adequate stocks of the new notes and will carry out all their transactions in new notes."
He said the public, whether customers of a bank or not, could exchange their old notes for new ones at any bank.
However, there need not be any rush to surrender old notes because they would remain legal tender for some time. No time limit had yet been laid down for the surrender of the old notes.
The new notes received so far were the initial supplies. Regular supplies would come in from time to time.
He said that the present coins would continue to be used until the end of the year when new coins would be issued.
It has been officially announced that the new currencies of Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei are freely interchangeable, that is, the notes of each country will be accepted at par in any of the three territories.
The new Singapore notes are in six denominations: $1, $5, $10, $50, $100, $1000.
The Singapore Finance Minister, Mr Lim Kim San, has said that the republic’s new currency is backed 100 per cent by external assets comprising gold, sterling, US dollars, Swiss francs and other strong foreign assets.
Copyright © 1998 Singapore Press Holdings. All Rights Reserved.
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