A very rare $10 Government of the Straits Settlements, bearing one of the scarcer dates 1 January 1931 signed by Luis Shelley with serial number A/1 00001 sold for £90,000 (RM496,156) in pink World and British Banknotes Auction on April 11.
The first $10 banknote to be issued for Straits Settlements sold nearly three times higher than estimates value of £35,000. A most important banknote and the first portrait $10 with portrait of George V for the Straits Settlements.
The banknote is accompanied by a letter titled MEMORANDUM from the CHAIRMAN AND MANAGING DIRECTOR of the banknote printer, Bradbury Wilkinson and is addressed to "Dear Cecil, I am sending you herewith $10 note, No. A/1 000001, first issued of this value. I thought you might like to have it as a personal memento of your great victory.”
The Governor of the Straits Settlements at the date of this letter, '14th April 1932' was Sir Cecil Clementi and this without doubt is the 'Dear Cecil' referred to in the letter.
Sir Cecil Clementi Smith was the governor and commander-in-chief of the Straits Settlements, and the high commissioner for the Federated Malay States from 1929 to 1934. Clementi resigned as Governor on 18 October 1934 on grounds of ill health, while on leave in England.
