12 Fun Facts About the Singapore Dollar to Share With Your Kids

We use it all the time, but did you know these fun facts about our beloved Singapore dollar?

Pay for chicken rice with a $5 note and you’re handing over a picture of a tree that’s still growing in the Botanic Gardens. Singapore issued its first coins and notes on 12 June 1967, two years after independence, and the currency has been redesigned four times since. Every note carries the face of the first president, the national anthem is hidden on one of them, and the coins in the piggy bank are a tour of the country’s landmarks.

Below are the facts that get the best “really?” from children, sorted so you can pull one out at the hawker centre.

Every Singapore note since 1999 shows Yusof bin Ishak, the first president, and each denomination has its own theme on the back, from education on the $2 to the arts on the $50.

The 1-cent coin was retired in 2002 and the $1,000 note stopped being issued in 2021, but both are still legal tender if one turns up in a drawer.

Fun facts about Singapore’s notes

1. The same face on every note

The Portrait Series, launched on 9 September 1999, features Yusof bin Ishak, Singapore’s first president, who served from 1965 to 1970. Before that, Singapore’s notes showed orchids (1967 to 1976), birds (1976 to 1984) and ships (1984 to 1999). Older relatives may still have a bird or ship note tucked away, and children love comparing them.

2. Each note has a theme on the back

The $2 is education, the $5 is garden city, the $10 is sports, the $50 is the arts and the $100 is youth. The $1,000 showed government and the $10,000 showed economics. Ask your child to guess the theme from the picture before you tell them. The $2 note also makes a decent opening for a bigger conversation about why a PSLE score doesn’t decide a child’s future, since the note celebrates learning and not a grade.

3. The national anthem is printed on the $1,000 note

The complete lyrics of Majulah Singapura are printed in microtext on the back of the $1,000 note, small enough to need a magnifying glass. It’s one of the reasons the note is so hard to counterfeit.

4. The $1,000 and $10,000 notes are no longer printed

The Monetary Authority of Singapore stopped issuing the $10,000 note on 1 October 2014 and the $1,000 note on 1 January 2021, to reduce the risk of money laundering. Both stay legal tender, so a $1,000 note found in a red packet from years ago can still be banked. The $10,000 note was, for a long time, one of the most valuable banknotes in circulation anywhere in the world.

5. The $5 tree is a real tree

The Tembusu on the back of the $5 note is the famous heritage tree in the Singapore Botanic Gardens, believed to be well over 150 years old and older than the Gardens themselves. A large branch fell in 2017, but the tree still stands and can be visited. Note in hand, it makes an easy outing to slot into one of the Singapore public holidays and long weekends when nobody wants to travel far.

6. Some notes are plastic

The $10 went polymer on 4 May 2004, followed by the $2 and $5. Polymer notes survive the washing machine, last several times longer than paper and are harder to fake. The $50 and $100 are still paper, and they’re the ones that come out of the wash looking sorry for themselves.

7. Notes can be read by touch

Feel the corner of any note and you’ll find raised dots. They’re a tactile code so that people who are blind or have low vision can tell the denominations apart. Let your child close their eyes and try.

8. Singapore dollars work in Brunei

Under the Currency Interchangeability Agreement, in place since 1967, the Singapore dollar and the Brunei dollar are accepted at par in each other’s countries. If you’re ever handed a Brunei note in change here, it’s not a mistake. In 2007 the two countries marked 40 years of the agreement with a special $20 polymer note.

Fun facts about Singapore’s coins

9. The coins are a tour of Singapore

The current third series, issued from 2013, puts a landmark on each coin: the Esplanade on the 5-cent, public housing on the 10-cent, Changi Airport on the 20-cent, the Port of Singapore on the 50-cent and the Merlion on the $1. The first series (1967 to 1985) showed marine life, and the second (1985 to 2013) showed flowers, so a coin from your own childhood probably has an orchid on it.

10. The 1-cent coin is gone

It stopped circulating in 2002, so prices get rounded to the nearest 5 cents at the till. It’s still legal tender, so a jar of them can in theory be spent, though see the next fact.

11. There’s a limit to paying in coins

By law, a shop only has to accept up to 20 coins of each denomination in a single payment. Emptying the piggy bank onto the counter for a $30 toy is a lesson in why banks exist.

12. The heaviest coin weighs a kilogram

Singapore’s largest coin, an $80 silver proof coin first issued in 2012, is 100mm across and weighs 1kg. The smallest, a $1 gold bullion coin from 2003, is 7mm wide and weighs a third of a gram. Neither will fit a vending machine.

Turning it into a money lesson

Facts get a child’s attention, and the handling is where the learning happens. Let a child pay at the hawker stall and check the change against the coin landmarks. Sort a jar by series and find the oldest coin. Look up what $10 bought in 1967 (a great deal more). When a red packet arrives, the polymer $10 goes in the wallet and the paper $50 goes to the bank, a rule about spending and saving that a six-year-old can repeat back to you. If the counting turns into an argument, the warm-but-firm positive parenting approach works better here than confiscating the jar.

Common questions

Who’s on the Singapore dollar note?

Yusof bin Ishak, Singapore’s first president, has been on every note of the Portrait Series since 1999.

Is the $1,000 Singapore note still valid?

Yes. MAS stopped issuing new $1,000 notes on 1 January 2021, and $10,000 notes in 2014, but existing notes remain legal tender and can be deposited at banks.

What’s on the back of the Singapore $5 note?

The garden city theme, featuring the heritage Tembusu tree in the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

Can I use Singapore dollars in Brunei?

Yes. Under the Currency Interchangeability Agreement of 1967, Singapore and Brunei dollars are accepted at par in both countries.

Why do Singapore notes have raised dots?

They’re a tactile feature that lets people with visual impairment identify the denomination by touch.

What’s on Singapore’s coins?

The third series, from 2013, shows the Esplanade (5 cents), public housing (10 cents), Changi Airport (20 cents), the Port of Singapore (50 cents) and the Merlion ($1).

One fact per hawker centre trip

Your wallet is carrying the first president, the national anthem in microtext, a tree you can go and stand under, a landmark on every coin and a 1967 treaty with Brunei. Pull out one of those the next time you’re queueing for kopi, hand your child the note and let them pay. They’ll remember the Merlion on the $1 long after they’ve forgotten that you told them to save.