1 Ringgit

Malaysia's move to polymer for the 1 Ringgit was driven largely by the note's punishing circulation rate — low-denomination notes in humid tropical climates destroy cotton-linen stock far faster than in temperate countries, and the RBN series that preceded this issue had a notoriously short lifespan. Polymer extended expected note life from roughly two years to six or more.

De La Rue's Malta facility, operating from Żejtun since the mid-1970s, handles a significant share of the world's polymer security printing. The clear window incorporated into this note is a heat-fused element intrinsic to the substrate, not an applied patch — a distinction that matters when assessing forgery attempts, several of which have circulated in peninsular Malaysia using photocopied paper stock with a crude cutout in place of the genuine window.