1941i Malaya 1-cent

[villa66]

I began thinking about the British warships Repulse and Prince of Wales because I heard that the wreck of the American aircraft carrier Lexington had recently been found. (And the question of scrap steel salvaged from the Lex that had occurred to me, was immediately dismissed—in my own mind, anyway.)

Repulse and Prince of Wales—the latter almost sunk by Germany’s Bismarck earlier in the year—were sunk in December 1941 by Japanese aircraft off the coast of Malaya. And the habit of date-collecting being what it is, a quick connection with this 1941i Malayan 1-cent piece was near automatic…

[villa66]

From this squarish bronze coin it was a only a quick trip to Winston Churchill remembering the loss of Repulse and Prince of Wales:

“In all the war I never received a more direct shock,” Churchill said, years later. “As I turned over and twisted in bed the full horror of the news sank in upon me. There were no British or American capital ships in the Indian Ocean or the Pacific except the American survivors of Pearl Harbor, who were hastening back to California. Over all this vast expanse of water Japan was supreme, and we everywhere were weak and naked.”

Which gave special resonance to the “I for India” mintmark on this period-piece….

[villa66]

But then my original concern about the salvaging of steel (and other metal) from WWII shipwrecks reasserted itself, and reading about the Repulse and Prince of Wales, it looks like illicit salvage activities on the two wrecks didn’t begin until sometime after 2007.

So about this bronze-clad steel 2007 Malaysian 1-sen, one thing that can be said is that it contains no steel that was once a part of the battlecruiser Repulse or battleship Prince of Wales.

v.