cddstamps on stamps: February 2022

Hello, let’s look at another Malay State. This time Negri Sembilan.

Negri Sembilan was a federation of smaller states and included Sungei Ujong which was absorbed into Negri Sembilan in 1895. You might find Straits Settlement stamps on mail from Malaya in the early 1890s with Sungei or Ujong cancels, overprints or surcharges. All covers with have rather expensive catalogue values.

Negri Sembilan was placed under the British control in 1887. The first stamp was issued in August 1891, overprinting "Negri Sembilan" on stamps of the Strait Settlements, and then in 1891 came a stamp with the drawing of a jumping tiger. In 1896, a series of stamps with the image of a tiger's head was issued – Note: not necessarily the actual stamps shown as various values were issued between 1896 and 1899.

In 1896, the Federated Malay States were formed. The first stamps of the Federated Malay States began in 1900, when the stamps of Negri-Sembilan and Perak were overprinted "Federated Malay States".

Federated Malay States ceased in 1935 and were replaced by stamps of the individual states.

As we have seen from previous States I have shown, the stamps of Johore were used from 1965 with the Arms of Negri Sembilan and inscribed NEGERI SEMBILAN on the orchid issue and from 1971 we see the Malayasia butterfly issue again with the inscription but in lower case for “negeri sembilan”

I hope these images help a little.

Certainly an interesting area to collect. Enjoy your stamps Michael cddstamps.com

and with thanks to my friend at British Commonwealth Album here - and you might enjoy a visit to his online store the Used Stamp Collector here.

Hello, welcome to the blog if you have just found it, or welcome back to regular readers.

A couple more from Malacca today.

This first stamp is from the 1960 issue Remember this design from the Kedah issue I showed a few days back?. Here it is again and this time with no QE II portrait or Sultan portrait but an image of the Meleka tree and mouse deer. The name Malacca is actually derived from the word Melaka but why the change I do not know - I welcome comments please. As a footnote. I think it was in 2017 that the name of the State actually did officially change to Melaka.

And finally, the last stamp from Malacca but now as you can see Melaka. All very confusing perhaps? but such interesting history, and from as way back as the early 1400s.

If you have this stamp do check it carefully. There is the basic issue as in this image

And then there is a flaw issue with the yellow missing, and another flaw with the red missing. Check your catalogues for values, and enjoy.

Enjoy your stamps Michael cddstamps.com

and with thanks to my friend at British Commonwealth Album here - and you might enjoy a visit to his online store the Used Stamp Collector here.

Hello, now let’s look at another State, this time Malacca.

Malacca was one of the Straits Settlements that joined the Federation of Malay in 1948. The capital is Malacca City and it is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The history of the State makes for interesting reading I think. Enjoy it if you have the time. This is one places on my bucket list of places to visit one day. Conveniently situated between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.

This first stamp is appropriately enough from the Straits Settlement issued in 1952 and inscribed Malacca instead of Straits Settlements

This second stamp is the same Straits Settlement stamp, issued in 1955 and as you can see with the portrait of QE II. Notice how she is looking to the left whereas GVI was presented looking to the right. This does not happen by accident, and is in fact based on a tradition associated with the way the monarchs profile faces on coins.

Since the time of Charles II tradition has dictated the monarchs profile on coins alternates with each new monarch and this has been carried forward with the issue of stamps. So with GVI facing right it means, as tradition was followed, the portrait of QE II would be to the left, as generally it is. I should note there are a few exceptions on more modern GB stamps.

This third stamp, issued in 1957, is perhaps just what you expected. Yes the same design we have seen before, and with the portrait of QE II now in place of a Sultan.

Enjoy your stamps Michael cddstamps.com

and with thanks to my friend at British Commonwealth Album here - and you might enjoy a visit to his online store the Used Stamp Collector here.

Hello, two more from Kelantan . Do you recognize this first one? Yes we saw it in the Johore issue.

Here it is again, from the 1961 Kelantan issue, this time with the portrait of the Sultan Yahya Petra. Lovely design, as I may have said before, and I think it makes for an interesting collection to get one from each State.

This second stamp you will also find various copies of.

This is the orchid issue of 1965. Just 7 in the issue but with two others issued in 1970 with the watermark sideways. This is a set that I have been guilty of getting the watermark wrong. Do look carefully. The watermark upright, that is the 1965 issue, has a 2021 SG cat value of 25 pence for a good quality used copy. The 1970 issue of the stamp with watermark sideways is £10. Not the sort of error one wants to make too often.

Next we will move to Malacca. Hope you join me.

Enjoy your stamps Michael cddstamps.com

and with thanks to my friend at British Commonwealth Album here - and you might enjoy a visit to his online store the Used Stamp Collector here.

The next state to look at is Kelantan. Kelantan was part of Thailand - historically known as Siam - with Siam stamps used with various Kelantan / Kalantan cancels during the 1880s through to 1909. This is from a 1905 issue of Siam.

From 1909 the stamps of the Federated Malay States were used. In 1911, stamps were first issued for Kelantan featuring the coat of arms of the sultanate and by 1937 the stamps featured the sultan Ismail.

In 1922, stamps were overprinted to commemorate the Malaya Borneo Exhibition. Since 1948, issues have been similar to those of other Malay states.

Tomorrow I will sho0w couple of the other Malay state issues.

Enjoy your stamps Michael cddstamps.com

and with thanks to my friend at British Commonwealth Album here - and you might enjoy a visit to his online store the Used Stamp Collector here.

Hello, welcome to the weekend. I do hope you have time for stamps - and perhaps time to pop into the cddstamps online store here. We have listed a few lovely GVI and early QE II from Bermuda and British Guiana as well as a few more North Borneo. Not too many but a few that you might not have, especially some perf differences and shades.

Anyway one more tonight from Kedah - this from the 1959 issue which saw the GVI portrait replaced with that of Sultan Abdul HalimShah. Same stamp design, Did you see the new portrait straightaway? many do not!

Also to note, there are two perf varieties, the original 1959 issue was perf 12½ and there was a 1960 reprint with perf 12½ x 13. Just nice to have both in your collection I think, And they are not at all costly to acquire.

I want to digress just this once as today I saw a listing for a stamp for sale. Perhaps this is just my view so take it that way if you will, but I do hope that if you are a new collector you do realise this type of listing is - as I say in my view - one to avoid. Basically you have little idea - in my view - of what you will be getting if you think this would be good to add to your collection. Your choice of course, but this image has been greatly enhanced, brightened shall we say. Not a good sign in my book. But as I say, just my thinking. I am reminded of the old expression - if it looks like a duck, smells like a duck and sounds like a duck,,,,, it is a ........... :-)

Have a brilliant philatelic weekend wherever you are. michael cddstamps.com

and with thanks to my friend at British Commonwealth Album here - and you might enjoy a visit to his online stor as well this weekend the Used Stamp Collector here

Hello. Staying with Kedah for one more.

I show this because it is, I think, a wonderful design and topic and also because I have to admit I have actually blown a blowpipe. I was in North Borneoa few years back and visiting a cultural centre. Not as easy as it might appear. So this is a stamp I have enjoyed for a many years now.

Another State tomorrow. Enjoy your stamps Michael cddstamps.com

and with thanks to my friend at British Commonwealth Album here - and you might enjoy a visit to his online store the Used Stamp Collector here.

Hello back after a busy weekend. I hope yours was good. Today we move to the State of Kedah, Interesting history since it was very much influenced by the Thai monarchy in the early years with Thai stamps used in the late 1800s.

But as I mentioned last week they also had pictorial definitives and while I like the 1957 issues as I mentioned last week – I will show some over the coming days – I also particularly like the 1912 issues. Just three designs over a set of 15 stamps.

The Malay ploughing design is used on the most issues from the 10c to the 50c issues and the Alor Star Council Chamber is used on the higher value to $5.

More over the coming days. enjoy your stamps Michael cddstamps.com

and with thanks to my friend at British Commonwealth Album here - and you might enjoy a visit to his online store the Used Stamp Collector here.

Hello, welcome back. I hope you like this stamp. One more from Johore. One of the 1965 Flora Orchids issue.

Apart from being a nice stamp it is one to look carefully at. A copy with the green omitted is worth “a nice shriaz” and there is also a watermark sideways copy from a 1979 issue.

More over the coming days. enjoy your stamps Michael cddstamps.com

and with thanks to my friend at British Commonwealth Album here - and you might enjoy a visit to his online store the Used Stamp Collector here.

Hello, let’s start something new. This time we will look at the stamps from the Malaysian States. I will do this in alphabetical order so we will start with Johore. I will also try and avoid earlier issues with various overprints, perhaps just too complicated, Omnibus issues like the 1949 UPU issue and the 1953 Coronation issue.

Johore joined the Federation of Malaya in 1948 and the first Johore stamps were issued in 1891. This and other early issues show just the image of the Sultans Abu Bakar and then Sir Ibrahim. It was not until 1960 that we started to see pictorial definitives.

The first were based on the 1957 designs of Kedah but with the portrait of Sultan Ismail (as above). Not an expensive set of 11 but perhaps not easy to get a nice copy of each issue. The 10c stamp above is one of the very common ones and rather attractive I think.

More over the coming days. enjoy your stamps Michael cddstamps.com

and with thanks to my friend at British Commonwealth Album here - and you might enjoy a visit to his online store the Used Stamp Collector here.

Hello, when I first introduced Labuan I mentioned Japan occupied the island during WW II so I thought fitting to complete the Labuan topic and show one stamp issued during the occupation. This can be a very pricey collecting area I might add.

The whole of North Borneo had been occupied by January 1942 and that meant Brunei, North Borneo itself, Sarawak and Labuan were administered as a single territory by the Japanese, and as such the stamps of North Borneo were used with a Japanese overprint, as in the example above

From 1944 contemporary stamps of Japan were used for the single territory with an overprint as in the two examples below.

Enjoy your stamps and all they bring us. Michael cddstamps.com

and with thanks to my friend at British Commonwealth Album here - and you might enjoy a visit to his online store the Used Stamp Collector here.

Today I am showing a Labuan stamp which was issued in 1897; one of a set issued over the period 1897 to 1901, all being stamps of North Borneo with Labuan engraved into the North Borneo plate.

The colours are also changed from the North Borneo printings of the same period. This for example is the Labuan 2 cent value, showing the Sambar Stag. Beautiful. In the North Borneo issue this was printed in black and rose lake.