Singaporean Coins

Singaporean coins are written in four languages because the country was built on the principle that no community's voice would be erased from public life — not even on an object as small as a coin. Every denomination carries Singapore's name in English, Malay, Tamil, and Chinese, representing the four official languages of a nation that achieved independence in 1965 and became one of the wealthiest countries on earth within a single generation.

The coins in this collection belong to Singapore's second coinage series, launched in December 1985, which replaced the marine life designs of the first series with a botanical garden in miniature — a different tropical plant on each denomination, from orchids on the cent to periwinkle on the dollar. The country that calls itself a Garden City put the garden on its money, and the series is one of the most cohesive thematic sets in modern world coinage. Each coin carries the coat of arms — a lion and a tiger supporting a shield of five stars and a crescent — and the motto MAJULAH SINGAPURA: Onward Singapore, in a language chosen to be the national language of a country where most people speak something else at home.