Kelantan to have gold coins with no legal tender

KOTA BARU: Kelantan will have its own gold coins, based on the dinar dirham (Islamic currency) concept.  

However, the coins will not be legal tender. 

State Financial Planning committee chairman Datuk Husam Musa said the idea was to encourage people to buy the coins as a means of savings. 

“It can also be used as mas kahwin (marriage collateral),” he told a press conference here yesterday. 

The Kelantan Government will unveil the coins on Sept 20, with an initial investment of state funds worth RM100,000. 

State-owned corporation Permodalan Kelantan, entrusted with supplying and managing the coins, has set aside 3kg of gold worth RM240,000 for the public to buy them. 

The coins, designed by Bank Negara coin designer Ismail Bukhary, comes in three denominations: a one dinar 23mm diameter coin weighing 4.25gm (worth RM332.25), half-dinar 20mm diameter coin weighing 1.06gm (RM176.76) and a quarter dinar 21mm coin weighing 0.5gm (RM99.38). 

Husam said the coins would have safety features to prevent forgery. 

The state government has appointed Islamic pawnshop outlet Ar-rahn for the sale and transactions of the coin and hopes to get some goldsmiths to act as sales agents as well.