These are the pictures I got from ebay and internet on North Borneo stamps with 8 cents surcharge on 2 cents. This shows how easy is it to find forged North Borneo stamps and it is important for us to know what's genuine and what's not.

Now, as outlined above, [A] and [B] are genuine and [C] and [D] are forgeries. Just by comparing these pictures, I'm sure you'll get the idea. But anyway, let's start by looking at these pointers:

1. If you compare the perforation between the genuine stamps and the fake stamps, you'll notice that the genuine are perforated 12 while the forged stamps are perforated 14. This is very important as most forgeries on the 2 cents stamps are perforated 14 rather than 12. The height of the stamp is approx. 22mm and by counting the vertical perforation you'll get about 13 perf. or no more than 14, whereas in the forgeries you'll often got 16 or more.

2. If you measure the letters of the surcharge (e.g. the I, E or T) in the genuine stamps you'll get about 2¼ mm high whereas in the forgeries it's only 2mm high. Unfortunately, having the right height does not necessarily mean the stamp is genuine because another batch of forgeries on this stamp have the same surcharge height as the original.

3. Now if you look at the letter "H" in the surcharge and compared it in both stamps, you'll notice that the feet of the H are joined together quite clearly shown in picture [B]. If you now look at the forgeries you'll appreciate that the feet of the H are wide apart. In picture [D], the feet of the H are very close together but they are not joined.

4. Look at the "S" letter now. In genuine stamps, the bottom half is considerably bigger than the top half. In forgeries the "S" letter is perfectly upright and the top half and the bottom halves are about the same.

5. What about the shade? Stamp [C] has a red-brown shade and is known as the Genoa forgery probably by the work of N. Imperato.

There are several other subtle differences, but I think that's all we need to know for now. Pointer no 1 is especially important and should be remembered all the time when looking and judging at this stamp. Comments are always welcomed :)

Reference:

[1] Album Weeds: How to Detect Forged Stamps Part V by Earée

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In 1899, the West Coast Railway station was established in Jesselton. The railway connects several towns from Jesselton to Papar to Beaufort and ends in Tenom. The railway, in fact, was more important than the roads at that time and is undoubtedly a great asset for the country. For its 125 miles course, it passes many rubber estates and Government stations. It was because of this railway, Mr. Cowie (the then managing director of BNB company) was able to float off company after company during the rubber boom of 1909. In the old days, the Railway service was criticised for its notorious late starting time and arriving later still. The traveller was lucky if he reached his destination the same day, but often this is not the case as passengers quite frequently had to camp for the night in the coaches owing to a bridge having collapsed, a tree having fallen across the line, or the driver having forgotten to bring enough firewood. The trail from Beaufort to Tenom was particularly a dangerous one and the unevenness of the rails made the journey a terrifying one. Recently in 2008, after 108 years of its advent, accident still, unfortunately, happened.

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With regards to the postal service, the train also serves as a post office and called "Train Post Office (T.P.O)". Basically, passengers drop their letters in a postal box in the train and at every transit a mail clerk sorts them out and delivers them to respective stop. There are several interesting postmark in connection with the Train Post office. These are very rare today and would definetely fetch a higher price.