Fake overprint ?

Happy Chinese New Year !

Have not updated my blog for quite some time, my apology.

Recent found an overprinted stamp from a North Borneo collection I acquired. A black 1c o/p on 4c on paper without watermark. It is usually o/p in red, so I asked 'sifu' Gantianexpress if he had any information on this. From him I received the scan of the 1c o/p on 5c, with the note : Sale 11030 Lot 392NORTH BORNEO 1892 (Mar.-Nov.) Surcharges 1c. perforated colour trial in grey-black on watermarked paper with trial surcharge in black, fine. Sold £260.

It is interesting, that stamp issue was suppose to be printed on unwatermark paper. The two overprint look different. I guess I have a fake o/p (1c on 4c) on my hand but this type of black o/p is unusual, even fake. I wonder if any research on this fake o/p had been done and would be very grateful if someone can enlighten me.

North Borneo material is getting very expensive, it is hard to obtain anything interesting at reasonable price (by my standard :0)

Wishing all the 'hunters' a very lucky Year of Dragon !

F.M.S.elephant stamps

North Borneo stamps are too 'hot' for me to handle recently, so I go for other items. Acquired 2 FMS elephant stamps recently and believe they were postal used.

The $2 stamps is wmk. Crown CA but the post mark doesn't show the town name, Teluk Anson is only a guess, any other suggestion welcomed. Proud's R5 has no image and it doesn't fit with R6.

The $5 stamp wmk I cannot ID, I guess it is Script CA and the post mark fits Proud's R7, and the usage suggested in Proud should make pmk as Script CA a good guess.

My car has been giving me problem for quite some time now, and I have not been able to attend any 'yam-cha' session during this period, hope my 'yam-cha' friend are doing well in their stamp hunting and see the collection of our friend who just returned from Ireland.

Fake postmarks at Ebay

Bidding on 2 lots with fake postmarks on North Borneo stamps for reference but didn't win. May be some bidding as genuine. Saw some fake over-print on Straits Settlements and fake Jap. Occ. over-print for the passed 2 weeks, hope it doesn't become a trend.

My Keningau friend is winning as usual over the Chinese New Year, surly he is having a very happy new year. Bet he is now worrying about receiving them, that the court found the thieves not guilty, and sent them back to work at the Post Office :) Good luck my friend !

Heard of a a new spot for flea market where a few friends are selling there. Must visit them some time, may be selling some Malaysia gold & silver coins through them by consignment. Hard time, man.... but stamps can stay a bit longer :)

Happy Chinese New Year - Year of Rabbit

Happy New Year Greetings to all my friends and those 'over-sex bunny ' friends, have a good rest over the CNY, it may be the year of the Rabbit but that doesn't mean......

Today I see a Straits Settlement stamp with Christmas Island cancel being auction over Ebay. At the time of writing, it is not yet closed. I am not bidding on it because I cannot afford the current price :) I always find this interesting, I thought Cocos Island & Christmas Island being administrated by Singapore office in the 1950's, may be Christmas Island was earlier. I acquired one last month with the post mark year inverted. A 'jab-see-gai' for the Chinese New Year, it makes a good finishing for the year of Tiger, may be a good start for the year of Rabbit ??? Hope you do too.

Another 'Odd-ball' ?

Got my mail from UK after 20 days, I used to receive in 3-5 days. Singpost is no longer safe ? (I'll post a news article about this next time)

I cannot ID this purple pmk from 'Proud', it looks like D2 'JESSELTON', D3 'date' with BNBC at the bottom (may be a cross or star between 'JESSELTON' and 'BNBC'.) Purple JESSELTON pmk is not very common. Hope I will receive more comments than my last posting, all experts, 'sen-kah' or SKL are welcome to guess or enlighten me :)

I have eaten too much good food already, especially last night's 'tung-jeh' (arrival of winter season) dinner. Tomorrow's Christmas dinner will be another heavy one at home. I guess I may have to call gantianexpress to fetch me from the airport with a pick-up truck :)

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to all my gang members and stamp-nut friends all over the world.

P/S I won this stamp at 99p + GBP2.00 shipping. Thank you, God, for the Christmas gift.

North Borneo 'Odd-ball'

'Kudat109' brought me a ‘steak & kidney pie’ from England yesterday which I had for breakfast this morning. The long forgotten taste came back to me. Thank you, 'Kudat109' !

‘gantianexpress’ complaint that I have not written for too long. So, I show you an ‘odd-ball’ I exchanged with a friend when I was a kid, whose father worked in the post office from pre- to post WWII. This was one of the goodies I got from him. Unfortunately he became smarter as he grew :) I believe it was the sheet number that printed on the stamp. Any other opinion will be most welcome.

I will be out of town for a few weeks, before the new ‘Axis of Power’ starts WWIII from Asia. Meanwhile, I’m exchanging US$ for North Borneo CTO, at least no more CTO may be printed at will anymore :)

Merry Christmas !!!

Silam outgoing mail via Sandakan ?

Sharing the view of a stamp with Silam and Sandakan 8 JA 1892 red post mark. Assuming a letter sent from Silam via Sandakan.

Confirmed by a few 'hawk-eye' friends that the Silam pmk is about up side down. The red Sandakan pmk is clear & without dispute.

I'm posting this before I'm off for 2 weeks, just in case my creditors miss me :)

ASEAN + 8 is the end of ASEAN leading the S E Asia affairs. We have more stupid politicians in ASEAN than I thought :)

bury1883 loves politics, I hope he'll have comment on this :)

I've been told there's a Stamp & Coin fair at the China Town,Singapore from 19th - 22nd August. Hope I can go 'look-see look-see'.

Rare KUDAT post mark ???

This looks like the Kudat D2 with 2 digit year but A mm/dd/yy instead of the normal A dd/mm/yy format. So far I have only collected 2 of this and looks like both used in February 1895. Info from gantianexpress : he saw them used on Coat of Arm and the 1894 issues only and very few seen. Will appreciate more information on this post mark, especially from those 'Tawau' expert like bury1883 and sstawao.


I did not attend the last Saturday night 'yim-cha' session, so I must have missed a lot of gossip :) But the latest I have from bury1883 was the high realized price North Borneo used lot , which also appears on a blog written by a KK collector : North Borneo Stamps A recommended site , though the dark back ground makes it a bit difficult for a 'lau-chai' like me to read. I don't know the blog owner's eBay ID but he is an eBayer, promised to join our 'yim-cha' session when in town. Looking forward to meet our newcomer.

With and without 'stop'

Won a single lot of "With and without 'stop' after Due" mint stamps from a well-known American Jewish seller from eBay. When I received the stamps, I thought I saw the 'stop' on the second stamp, the 'stop' is on higher than normal position. Please click on the picture to have a better view. Was it supposed to be 'raised stop' or no 'stop' ? I'll appreciate comments on this.

From our regular Saturday night 'yam-cha', I heard that Jellyfish had won 3 lots of China Red Revenue stamps from a Hong Kong auction before the Chinese New Year, at a price that I could not earn in my life time. Unfortunately he did not show me the stamps during our last 'yam-cha' session. Could not blame him, I would have kept them in the safe with 3 guard dogs tie to it, if those were mine :)

Also heard that nbpostcard introduced a friend to bid on North Borneo post cards at eBay and now the post cards and covers collectors are facing a strong challenger. Could not get a confirmation from nbpostcard, he is on holiday in China. bury1883 phone to tell me about the situation last night and I gave him this unconfirmed news. God bless them all ! I'm blessed, I only collect used stamps for post marks :)

Happy New Year everyone, it's not over yet !

My Christmas present 2009

Happy New Year !

I received about 2 kg on paper for Christmas this year from my brother-in-law, collected over decades from his office. A quick glance picking, a Hong Kong piece with official 'Postage Paid' canceling a 50c stamp ?!! The other one is a clear CDS over a pair of beautiful 'Opera-crown' stamps dated 2002 February, Beijin. At the pace of Beijin development, I wonder if that post office is still around, given the clear CDS applied, it is likely to be a small & no so busy post office. Thanks for a treasure hunting present.

The British (& EU) politicians are making a lot of noice over the execution of a drug (4kg) smuggler by the Chinese court. If they're not happy with Chinese laws, may be they can send their gun-boats to China to start the 3rd Opium War like they did in 1840 ??? I don't request Gordon Brown to eat dog because I do it in Malaysia. Please have mutual respect to others' laws & custom for a better & fair world 2010.

KALAKA, Sarawak pmk

A rare KALAKA postmark showing 13 JUL, the double ring CDS, presume to be Singapore showing year 23. KALAKA is the district, of which SARATOK is the chief town. Two postmarks of KALAKA recorded by Proud used between 1909-1928.

Many interest topics discussed over email since my last posting. An inquiry from a non-collector about Gantian township came to me one day and it was passed around. Resulting the supply of GPS co-ordinate by chephe; tomb stone pictures of H.S Haynes supply by the inquirer, a district officer, killed in Gantian on 18 June, 1900, ; old newspaper confirmation of the report of his death supply by gantianexpress.

Today I received an interesting email answer to "Stamp collecting a cheap hobby ???" from elopura with the reinforcement of a very convincing picture.

Post WWII perfin

I tried to write on my facebook but the result isn't as good as here, so I'm coming back.

Acquired these two a few months ago among a small lot, thought it was interesting. Perfin after WWII for security purposes wasn't as common as pre-war. The other one I had on a 1950s Sarawak stamp was sold for a few bucks a couple of years ago. I'm hoping to gain some knowledge on post-WWII perfin in Asia, so I'll keep these two for a while for reference. I am no expert in this field, so I'll be grateful if someone can comment on this or refer me to some reading or information.

My next posting will be a KALAKA, SARAWAK postmark, and I hope g-matang will get ready to comment on it :)

The PosMalaysia hobby

The recent 'catch' by eBayers in Kota Kinabalu has been reported to the Police which didn't seem to be excited by the event, so a press conference was held on 18th June 2009 at Wisma Merdeka Complex. It was held in English but the poor Daily Express reporting didn't justify the effort, so the Chinese version from the Overseas Chinese News is also made available for those who can read Chinese. I hope the link will work as it is stored in a 'free' internet storage site :)

My eBay purchase from Australia arrived last week after the thief been detained by the Police & last night gantianexpress also confirmed he'd received a few overseas mail recently. It looks like we're back to the decent world, for the time being.

I'm not sure that's the last or the end to the story, I'm still worried because I was told that there are many more of the PosMalaysia staff are getting too 'exited' to be normal. For those of you that have been losing your mail for the passed ten years, you may breath for now, until the thieves are brought to the 'Taliban' justice, I don't think they are afraid as they have been doing it in a 'safe heaven' for too long.

I will be following the story for 'our' interest & post the latest here for your viewing. Comments on the subject will be most welcome and will make it more interesting. A round of applause for our heroes please !

A forge Kuching post mark ???

I received an email from owley of Australia yesterday regarding my posting on 2nd June, 2008. He suspected the post mark might be a forge KUCHING post mark on the 18c stamp. I went home to do an other check, the result as shown above. I found it a good match of the Proud D.7 post mark. I have not seen the forge KUCHING post mark, so I cannot tell the difference. I would be grateful if I can have more comment and information from you all, on this subject.

Our local eBayer heroes have caught a postal thief in Kota Kinabalu and reported to the Police. I have not seen it reported on the newspaper yet but will be after the progress of the matter. Meanwhile, you may click PosMalaysia's enemies to have fun. Before all the stolen goods buyers are caught, you might still find good material here, especially if you are a 'red-hair devil' :)