notes, although dated 1 September 1898, were not issued to the public until 1 May 1899. Both the Chartered Bank and Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank continued to issue banknotes, which circulated side by side with the official currency. All notes were freely exchangeable with the Mexican dollar or the various other silver coins that were legal tender in the Colony. Edward VII (1901–1910) Edward VII ascended the throne in January 1901. In the previous issue the 5-dollar note had been of almost the same size and design as the 10-dollar. It was now reduced in size to help recognition. The series dated 1 February 1901 were printed by Thomas de la Rue & Co. Ltd. of London. In 1903, a dollar-sized coin in silver was minted specially for the Straits Settlements, and this became the standard unit of value. All other silver dollars at that time circulation were demonetised by 1904. A steep rise in the price of silver, however, soon forced the government to call in the first issue of this Straits dollar and to replace it with a coin of lower silver content. During the change over period, fear of a shortage of coin led to the introduction of the one-dollar note, fixed at an exchange rate against gold instead of silver. To effect this, the British gold sovereign was for the first time declared legal tender, and the Straits dollar was given an arbitrary value of two shillings and four pence sterling. This dollar note proved so popular that it was retained in all future issues, so that to a very large extent it replaced the need for the silver coin. By the end of 1906, the currency circulation had risen to , while that of the private banks had fallen to (20th Century Impressions of British Malaya p. 138). The one-dollar notes, which were dated 1 September 1906, were printed by the London firm of Thomas de la Rue & Co. Ltd. A five-dollar and a ten-dollar note both dated 8 June 1909, were printed Thomas de la Rue & Co. Ltd. The Chinese text on top of the banknote reads: 叻嶼呷國庫銀票, 叻嶼呷 is the abbreviation for the Straits Settlements (叻 = Singapore, 嶼 = Penang Island, 呷 = Malacca). It is roughly equivalent to "banknote of the Straits Settlements". The Malay text is rendered in Jawi script at the bottom and three Straits Settlements