Shopping in Singapore? | How Cash, Coins and Exact Change Once Controlled the Speed of Everyday Shopping

SINGAPORE / SHOPPING CULTURE / CASH AND CHECKOUT HISTORY

By The Memory desk · Historical reference · Sources checked 7 October 2026

Singapore has paid in its own dollars since 12 June 1967, when the Board of Commissioners of Currency, Singapore (BCCS) issued the first notes and coins. They replaced the Malaya and British Borneo dollar that the region had shared since 1953. Four series of notes have followed, the Orchid (1967), Bird (1976), Ship (1984) and Portrait (1999), along with three series of coins, in 1967, 1985 and 2013. Along the way the $1 note gave way to a coin in 1987, the 1-cent coin stopped being issued in 2002, and the $10,000 and $1,000 notes were withdrawn from issue in 2014 and 2021.

That makes the history of Singapore cash and coins a shopping story as well as a monetary one. Notes and coins set the pace at the wet market, the provision shop and the hawker stall for decades, and they still shape small things today, such as why a bill is rounded to five cents and why some counters display a sign about coins. This guide sets out the dates from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the National Archives and other sources, then looks at how often Singaporeans still reach for cash.

Singapore’s cash at a glance

Own currency since	12 June 1967, issued by the Board of Commissioners of Currency, Singapore
Issuer today	The Monetary Authority of Singapore, which absorbed the BCCS on 1 October 2002
Note series	Orchid (1967), Bird (1976), Ship (1984), Portrait (1999); polymer notes from 2004
Coin series	First series (1967), second or floral series (1985), third series of national icons (2013)
Coins now in use	5, 10, 20 and 50 cents and $1
Key changes	$1 coin from 1987; 1-cent coin no longer issued from 2002; $10,000 note stopped in 2014 and $1,000 note in 2021
Still used?	82% of Singapore consumers said they still paid in cash in a 2022 Visa survey, against 97% by card

1967: Singapore issues its own dollar

Before 1967, shoppers in Singapore paid with the Malaya and British Borneo dollar, issued from 1953 by a currency board shared across the region. That arrangement did not long outlast Singapore’s separation from Malaysia in 1965. The BCCS was set up on 7 April 1967 under the new Currency Act, and on 12 June 1967 it issued Singapore’s own notes and coins. The first notes, the Orchid series, were decorated with orchids.

One link with the past survived. Under the Currency Interchangeability Agreement, which also dates from 12 June 1967, the Singapore and Brunei dollars are exchanged at par with no charge. Malaysia left the arrangement in 1973; Brunei and Singapore kept it. The agreement binds the two currency authorities, not shops, so a stall in Singapore is not obliged to take Brunei notes. For other currencies, see our guide to licensed money changers in Singapore, and for the street where money-changing and bargaining once shared a lane, our history of Change Alley.

Singapore currency history: the four note series

The Orchid series ran from 1967 to 1976. The Bird series followed in 1976, and the Ship series, drawing on Singapore’s maritime history, in 1984. The fourth series had a long gestation. Launching the Portrait series on 9 September 1999, Finance Minister Richard Hu, who also chaired the BCCS, said the notes had taken seven years. They were the first Singapore notes to carry a person rather than flowers, birds or ships: the late President Yusof bin Ishak, in a portrait by the artist Chua Mia Tee, on notes designed by Eng Siak Loy.

Two denominations did not make the move. The $1 and $500 notes of the Ship series were not carried into the Portrait series. From 4 May 2004 the $10 note was issued on polymer, which is more durable than paper, and the $2 and $5 notes followed. Older series were not withdrawn: Dr Hu said in 1999 that earlier notes would remain legal tender and circulate alongside the new ones.

Singapore coins: three series and the 1987 dollar coin

The first coin series, issued in 1967, had designs by Stuart Devlin. The second, the floral series, began on 2 December 1985. Its most noticeable addition came on 28 September 1987, when a $1 coin in aluminium-bronze entered circulation; a National Archives poster from that year announces new 1-cent and $1 circulation coins with effect from that date. The dollar coin went on to replace the $1 note in everyday change.

The third series was announced in February 2013 and entered circulation in June that year. Its five coins show national icons: the Merlion, the Port of Singapore, Changi Airport, public housing and the Esplanade. They are made of multi-ply plated steel with an electromagnetic signature to defeat counterfeits, and the $1 coin is bi-metallic. MAS said at the time that no earlier coins would be demonetised, so floral and even 1967 coins can still be used.

When did Singapore stop using the 1-cent coin?

MAS stopped issuing 1-cent coins in April 2002, judging that they were no longer widely used. They remain legal tender, but in practice many cash bills are now rounded to the nearest five cents. The 5-cent coin may be next. In February 2026 Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong said MAS had not minted new 5-cent coins for five years and had no plans to resume, though most of those returned to it were still being reissued to banks. He also cautioned that withdrawing the coin altogether could lead retailers to round prices up.

Under the Currency Act, coins are legal tender for up to 20 pieces of each denomination in a single payment, so a shop need not take a jar of 5-cent coins. A shop may also refuse a particular denomination if it displays a written notice saying so. According to the Asia News Network, MAS receives a small number of complaints each month about businesses turning away 5-cent coins without such a notice.

Exact change mattered most where sums were small and queues were quick. This is our reading rather than a documented finding, but a stall that runs short of coins and small notes early in the day loses sales to the stall next door, which is why so many small traders asked for exact money. Our histories of the provision shop and mama shop and the wet market describe the kinds of counters where cash was the only option.

1979 to 1986: ATMs and the first push away from cash

Cash became easier to get before it became less necessary. DBS’s heritage site credits Standard Chartered with Singapore’s first ATMs in 1979, and UOB dates its first 24-hour ATM to 1980; in 1993 UOB introduced what it calls the first automated cash deposit machine. The machines became part of national policy too. During the 1985 campaign described below, the National Library records, the Housing and Development Board relaxed its rules on where ATMs could go, and the government encouraged ATM training for daily-rated workers.

Then the government set out to reduce cash use. On 14 March 1985 it launched a national campaign to minimise cash transactions, aiming, according to the National Library, to make cashless payment a way of life by 1987. Salaries were to be paid by direct credit, bills by GIRO, and shop purchases by the new NETS EFTPOS service, which went islandwide in January 1986. That story is told in our history of NETS and EFTPOS.

Why Singapore stopped issuing its biggest notes

The largest notes went first. MAS stopped printing the $10,000 note from 1 October 2014 to reduce the risk of money laundering. The $500 note had already gone with the Ship series, so after 2014 the $1,000 note was the largest still being issued.

On 3 November 2020 MAS announced that it would also stop issuing the $1,000 note from 1 January 2021. It called this a pre-emptive step against the money-laundering and terrorism-financing risks of large notes, which let people carry big sums anonymously, and noted that major jurisdictions had already stopped issuing such notes. Existing $1,000 notes remain legal tender, banks may keep recirculating those they hold, and the $100 note is now the largest being issued.

Does anyone still pay cash in Singapore?

More people than the cashless headlines suggest. A 2017 PayPal study, cited by Singapore Management University in 2021, found that nine in ten Singaporeans named cash as their first choice of payment, and a 2016 KPMG report found hawker centres were where cash dominated most. By October 2019, a Visa survey found, nearly half of consumers were carrying less cash than two years earlier, most often because they were using contactless payment more. Yet in Visa’s October 2022 survey, 82 per cent still said they used cash, even as 97 per cent paid by card.

The 2020 push to bring QR payment to hawker stalls, told in our history of PayNow and SGQR, changed this sharply at food centres. Even so, the Asia News Network reported in 2026 that older shoppers were still the main users of 5-cent coins, while younger ones paid by PayNow. As of October 2026, a few small notes are still worth carrying for older stalls, markets and the odd moment when a phone or terminal fails.

A Singapore cash and coins timeline

• 1953: The Malaya and British Borneo dollar comes into use.
• 7 April 1967: The Board of Commissioners of Currency, Singapore is established.
• 12 June 1967: Singapore issues its own notes (Orchid series) and coins; interchangeability with Brunei begins.
• 1976: The Bird series of notes is issued.
• 1979 to 1980: The first ATMs open.
• 1984: The Ship series of notes is issued.
• 14 March 1985: The national campaign to minimise cash transactions begins.
• 2 December 1985: The second (floral) coin series is issued.
• 28 September 1987: The $1 coin enters circulation.
• 9 September 1999: The Portrait series of notes is launched.
• April 2002: MAS stops issuing the 1-cent coin.
• 1 October 2002: The BCCS merges into MAS.
• 4 May 2004: The first polymer note, the $10, is issued.
• June 2013: The third (national icons) series of coins enters circulation.
• 1 October 2014: MAS stops issuing the $10,000 note.
• 1 January 2021: MAS stops issuing the $1,000 note.
• February 2026: The government says no new 5-cent coins have been minted for five years.

Questions people ask

When did Singapore get its own currency?

On 12 June 1967, when the Board of Commissioners of Currency, Singapore issued the first Orchid series notes and the first coins. Before that, Singapore used the Malaya and British Borneo dollar.

When did Singapore stop issuing the 1-cent coin?

In April 2002. The coin is still legal tender, but many cash bills are now rounded to the nearest five cents.

Can shops in Singapore refuse 5-cent coins?

Yes, if they display a written notice. Coins are also legal tender only up to 20 of each denomination in a single payment, so a shop can decline a large pile of coins.

Are old Singapore notes and coins still legal tender?

Earlier note series were kept as legal tender when the Portrait series was launched in 1999, and MAS said in 2013 that no past coin series would be demonetised. Existing $1,000 notes also remain legal tender, although no new ones are issued. For a rare old note, check with MAS or a bank before relying on it.

Why did Singapore stop issuing the $1,000 note?

MAS said in November 2020 that large notes carry higher risks of money laundering and terrorism financing. It stopped issuing the $1,000 note from 1 January 2021, following the $10,000 note in 2014.

Sources and further reading

• National Archives of Singapore: Speech by Dr Richard Hu at the launch of the Portrait notes (September 1999)
• National Archives of Singapore: New circulation coins poster (1987)
• National Archives of Singapore: MAS press release on the third series of coins (February 2013)
• Monetary Authority of Singapore: Discontinuation of $1,000 note issuance (November 2020)
• Mothership: S$1,000 note will no longer be issued from 1 January 2021 (November 2020)
• Asia News Network: Singapore’s five-cent coin enters its twilight (March 2026)
• Dollars and Sense: Why shops in Singapore can refuse your 5-cent coins (2026)
• National Library Board, Infopedia: The national campaign to minimise cash transactions
• DBS Heritage: The early tech adopter tales of DBS
• UOB: Our corporate milestones (2019 annual report)
• Wikipedia: Singapore dollar, for series and coin dates
• Wikipedia: Singapore Portrait Series currency notes, for polymer dates
• Wikipedia: Brunei–Singapore Currency Interchangeability Agreement
• Visa: More than half of Singaporeans use mobile contactless payments (May 2020)
• Visa: Card payments overtake cash usage in Singapore (March 2023)
• Singapore Management University, Asian Management Insights: Cashing in on disruptions (2021)

This is a historical reference, not financial advice: rules on coins and notes can change, so check MAS for the current position. Read next: How NETS brought bank-account payment to the till · Change Alley and its money changers · Back to The Memory