SINGAPORE – After visiting three different DBS Bank branches, Mr Andiappan, a 72-year-old coin collector, finally obtained eight $10 commemorative coins for the 100th birth anniversary of Mr Lee Kuan Yew.

The retiree, who goes by one name, tried the DBS Bishan branch and then the DBS Towner Road branch in Boon Keng on the morning of Dec 4 – the first day the coins were available for walk-in exchange at banks – but both had run out of coins available for exchange that day.

However, at the second branch, he was directed to scan a QR code to see which DBS branches still had coins available for exchange.

He then made his way to the DBS Plaza Singapura branch, where he successfully snagged eight commemorative coins at around 1.40pm after waiting for nearly half an hour.

“It’s a very good way of helping the public,” he said of the bank’s online directory indicating the availability of coins.

Singaporeans and permanent residents made more than 700,000 online applications for 3.3 million coins – out of the four million minted – in a May 2023 online application exercise.

Successful applicants had until Dec 3 to collect the gold-coloured LKY100 coins, which feature a portrait of Singapore’s founding prime minister. More than 700,000 coins were then made available for walk-in exchange the next day at 142 participating bank branches.

Long queues, which formed at various bank branches before they even opened on the morning of Dec 4, were cleared more quickly at some branches than others.

At the DBS Ang Mo Kio Central branch, which opened at 8.30am, customers were given queue numbers and offered plastic chairs to sit on while waiting outside the branch.

However, some customers felt the queue was moving too slowly, and left to queue outside the UOB branch at AMK Hub, which opened at 11am. There, customers were directed to a designated counter for the coin exchange from 11.30am.

A DBS staff member from the branch said the queue moved slowly as the bank was also handling general banking matters.

Several customers that The Straits Times spoke to outside the DBS Ang Mo Kio Central branch said they waited for around two hours before they could complete their exchanges.

The branch closed its queue at 11am as the available coins for the day were almost fully exchanged.

The OCBC Bank branch at AMK Hub did likewise at 11.30am.

At the DBS branch at Toa Payoh HDB Hub, customers were given queue numbers and approximate time slots for their exchanges, to prevent a long queue from obstructing the corridor outside.

This was also to avoid overwhelming the staff, who also had general inquiries to attend to, said a branch staff member.

The DBS branch ran out of coins by around noon, as did the adjacent UOB branch.

However, the Maybank branch at HDB Hub managed to clear its queue by that time, and customers could subsequently walk up to its counters to make their coin exchanges.

UOB told ST it had received overwhelming response on the first day of walk-in collection, and had put in place measures such as dedicated queues and deployment of temporary and part-time staff to help customers.

Walk-in exchanges will continue until Dec 31, 2023, or till stocks run out, whichever is earlier.

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The Monetary Authority of Singapore said there is no restriction on the number of coins an individual can make an exchange for, provided the bank branch still has available stock.

Mr Andiappan told ST he heard a previous customer had made an exchange for nearly 600 coins.

The coins, which successful applicants from the online exercise could collect from Sept 4, can be found for sale on online platforms such as Carousell and eBay for prices ranging from $12 to $450.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.