so high a standard of living. over the past half - century, societies have embraced the protections of the myriad initiatives that have partially substituted government financial guarantees and implied certifications of integrity for business reputation. as a consequence, the value of trust so prominent in the nineteenth century seemed by the 1990s to be less necessary. most analysts believe that the world is better off as a consequence of these governmental protections. but corporate scandals in the united states and elsewhere have clearly shown that the plethora of laws of the past century have not eliminated the less - savory side of human behavior. we should not be surprised, then, to see a reemergence in recent years of the value placed by markets on trust and personal reputation in business practice. after the recent revelations of corporate malfeasance, the market punished the stock prices of those corporations whose behavior had cast doubt on the reliability of their reputations. there may be no better antidote for business and financial transgression. corporate scandals and evidence of fraud and malfeasance notwithstanding, the history of rising standards of living in a world fearful of violence is extraordinary testimony to the resilience of free peoples engaged in commerce. our system works fundamentally on trust and individual fair dealing. we need only look around today ’ s world to appreciate the value of these traits and the consequences of their absence. while market economies have achieved much in this regard, more remains to be done. prejudice of whatever stripe is unworthy of a society built on individual merit. a free - market capitalist system cannot operate effectively unless all participants in the economy have the opportunity to achieve their best. if we succeed in opening up opportunities to everyone, the affluence within our borders will almost surely become more equally distributed. of even greater import, all people will come to recognize that they are part of a system that is fair and worthy of support. * * * america ’ s founding fathers, whose thought had deep roots in the concepts of the british and scottish enlightenments, bestowed upon us a system of government and a culture of enterprise that have propelled the united states to the greatest material prosperity the world has ever experienced. today ’ s students, both here at nyu and throughout our country, are carrying forward those traditions. i know they will improve upon this inheritance of democratic government and free markets in ways that we have yet to imagine.

the coin money tree that had coins which could be detached from its branches or used as an entire “ money tree ”. in other cases it is the name of a coin that became adopted by different societies. the “ leeuwendaler ” ( “ lion dollar ” ), which circulated in the dutch colonies such as new york, ended up as the official us currency after the war of independence from britain. the same dutch coins were also common in the malay archipelago, but only in brunei has the dollar survived as an official term for the currency. in malaysia, the old british unit of the “ shilling ” lived on long after it ceased to exist in the united kingdom. there is no end to the links that can be found between the different countries and their coinage. nusantara was at the centre of this international network, leaving us with a diverse inheritance of numismatic material. much of the physical evidence of this global trade has, however, been lost. evolution is an intrinsic part of the nature of money ; coins have been melted down, misplaced or sometimes incorporated into other items such as jewellery ; banknotes have been destroyed. we are left with shipwrecks as some of the most useful sources information on the money that was in circulation in our history. what remains is a faint reflection of the millions – literally – of coins that once circulated in the archipelago. some are of the highest rarity while others may not be. bank negara malaysia has for many decades been a custodian of local numismatic heritage, resulting in an unrivalled collection of malaysian coins and banknotes. this is a natural role for a central bank to adopt. bis central bankers ’ speeches we would like to thank the input of private collectors such as mr. william barrett, whose passion for nusantara numismatic material has produced the core of the present exhibition. “ knowing nusantara ” is the first numismatic exhibition of this nature to be held at bank negara malaysia. it looks back over a very long time period, and encourages us to look into the future as well. the changes that have taken place during two millennia have been substantial, including the introduction of paper money and the end of precious - metal coins in circulation. these are insignificant in comparison with the developments of the recent decade. the future is cashless. some time in the future, the present contents of our purses and pockets will seem as quaint as some of the contents of