sbu33's Bio
From a very young age, I was somewhat exposed to silver coins. Let me now tell you about the real life story of my grandmother's two silver coins......
My paternal grandmother, Madam Sim Poh Neo came from Fujian province in South China in the early nineteen hundreds. She was probably in her teens but she became the second wife of my merchant grandfather living in Malacca (part of the British Straits Settlements then). The Peranakan (local term for Straits-born Chinese) family later moved to Singapore, a major trading center even in those early days.
It was an extended traditional family typical of those olden times when my grandmother and her two sons lived in the same household as the matriarch (first wife) and her eight children. Needless to say, cultural norms notwithstanding, the matriarch gave my grandmother a very difficult domestic life for obviously being the favored wife of my grandfather.
My grandmother was a tough old lady. I remember that she would often tease us for not being as strong as her when we fall ill ever so often. 'I'm Made-In-China' she would say, alluding to all of us who were born in Singapore. A play of words, for in those days that China label meant an inferior quality but she instead embodies the very opposite. Hard domestic life, two world wars, Japanese occupation of Singapore after the British surrender, dire third world economic conditions yet very few complaints came out from her.
She had very little luxury until she was well past her middle age, I think she was generally happy on very little. One of those “luxuries” that she possessed were two silver coins……..
When I was a boy in the 1960s, I would notice that my grandmother would pour hot water into an enamel mug containing either the 1920 Straits Settlements King George V $1 silver coin or the Queen Victoria 1845 Indian 1 rupee silver coin. She would then drink that concoction! Whenever I try to sip it out of sheer curiosity (I figured then that a silver coin-flavored beverage must have a 'rich' taste right??), she would shoo me away.
She would do that whenever she feels under the weather or have heart palpitations! Now, please don't try that at home!
Years later, I discovered that it was an old Chinese wives' tale. Many would do that……an added reason for the popularity of silver coins even in those days? Apparently, those minute traces of silver and what-have-you elements in those coins in the hot water must have helped or least was an effective placebo!
To end this story, my grandmother lived to 98 years old. Those two coins are now with me (not slabbed by NGC!). They must have sparked off my 'healthy' hobby in numismatics. And oh, I never got to drink the lustrous silver coin-flavored beverage..... is there any hope that I'll live to 98???? Likely not, but I became an "accidental" coin collector...
Starting with those coins that are close to my heart, coins that once upon a time circulated (or uncirculated?) in Singapore, Malaysia and in the region..... Straits Settlements, British Trade Dollars, Singapore Kepings, modern day Singapore proofs...later, China coins in memory of a scarce gem, my grandmother and, British North Borneo coins because although they are a small group, they are really an elusive collection to complete.