From 1 Jan to 31 Jan 2010, several hundreds North Borneo stamps have been listed in ebay. From this few hundreds of stamps, only several listings managed to fetch more than €100 price. The list below includes listings available internationally and with auction format only. Overall, the cumulative price for the 5 items is $2606. The top 5 most expensive North Borneo stamps are as follows:

This is for January 2010 list, to see the other list, click the following:
February 2010
March 2010
April 2010

This is another postcard that appeared in ebay and ended on 29 Jan 2010. One forged stamp was used and pasted on the lower left corner of the postcard. Again, the postmark appears to suddenly vanish beyond the stamp surface. If you compare this 2 cent stamp to the one on the top postcard, you'll notice that they are actually identical! The Position of the postmark, the angle etc are all identical, which means that they are printed by the same individual. This particular postcard was offered for $49.99 from a seller in Netherlands.

This article is no longer maintained. An updated version on Silam Postmark may be found in my new North Borneo stamps site.

Related Topic

North Borneo Postmarks

This article is no longer maintained. An updated version on Silam Postmark may be found in my new North Borneo stamps site.

The Forgery

Due to its high prevalence, I'm trying to put some records of the forgeries of North Borneo SG2 and Scott #5. Genuine stamp of this surcharge is very rare, and we are uncertain if the surcharge of this issue is ever sold. All perforated 14 stamps bearing this surcharge are forgeries. Genuine stamps must have a perforation 12.

In Stanley Gibbons catalogue, it says that a surcharge without a fullstop is considered a forgery but the essential aspect is actually the perforations. Most of the forgeries on this issue if not all, used the later stamp issues of 1886 which has a perf 14. This particular stamp issue appears from time to time in ebay and other online auction sites and it's very sad that buyers pay for such a high price for this piece of junks. Most sellers are also unaware of this and despite knowing the perforation inconsistencies, could not decide further what it really means. Buying this stamp without any certification of authenticity is like buying an Euromillion Jackpot ticket, your chance of winning is 1 in several hundreds millions.

In the early days of North Borneo philatelic study, there is a doubt as to the status of the vertical 8 cents surcharge altogether. Stanley Gibbons catalogue for example stated that "There is a grave doubt as to the authenticity of No. 2" but since the 1978 edition, the statement is omitted. Although a genuine sample of postally used stamp bearing this surcharge is extremely rare, several cancellations may be used:

What are CTOs?

Cancel to order (CTO) in general refers to a stamp that was marked as used by the postal service despite not being used for postal purposes. Usually, these stamps are then sold to collectors and dealers at a fraction of the face value. The reason for this is that by selling the cancelled stamps, the government can acquire additional income. It's a good solution for selling the remainders of the stamps and at the same time not having to provide the postal service.



What are Stamp Remainders?

Stamp remainders are simply the unsold stamps at a time when they are considered obsolete by the issuing agents (post office). In other words, stamp remainders are the 'expired' stamps. Now, it would be a total waste to dump these stamps because they are still valuable to the stamps collectors. That's why these remainders are usually sold at a fraction of the face values and must bear the CTO mark to avoid being used postally.

North Borneo CTOs?

In North Borneo postal service, an oval of black bars was used to cancel the remainder stamps from this country up to 1916. However, not all the oval bars postmarks were used to cancel the remainders. In fact they were used both for postal cancellation and remainder cancellation up to 1916. This form of postmark (oval of bars) were used for postal purposes at some post offices up to 1949. Therefore, we may generalise it like this "all the North Borneo CTOs have the oval of bars cancel, but not all of the oval of bars are used for CTO stamps".

Because it is relatively easier to counterfeit the oval of bars postmark, it has been readily targeted by unscrupulous forgers to make easy money. Many forged postmark of this kind are very difficult to distinguish and the best way to spot them is by looking at the stamps themselves. It is amazing to know that actually stamps bearing this type of postmarks sell for much lower prices than the mint version even for the genuine stamps, and you always wonder why is it necessary at all for the counterfeiters to add the extra work to forge the postmark. In ebay, especially the queen issues of Labuan stamps, the forged stamps are usually offered as a block of 4 bearing this postmark. As a general rule, expect that it is a forgery until proven otherwise.

In Stanley Gibbons catalogue, the values of the CTOs are indicated in the third column (up to 1912 stamps issues), usually at a fraction of the postally used and mint values. The Scott catalogue lists the used price (in second column) as the CTOs up to 1912 and indicates that stamps with clear dated postmarks sell for much higher price.

This article is no longer maintained. An updated version on First North Borneo Airmail may be found in my new North Borneo stamps site.

History

These mails were brought by two R.A.F seaplanes on survey or training flights (S1149 and S1419) under the command of Squadron Leader G.E. "Gerry" Livock. The mails that boarded the flights were mainly of souvenir nature, due to the rarity of such flights with the accompanying postmark. Sarawak, Brunei and North Borneo all produced specific airmail postmarks for the flights. The Sarawak postmark being circular with the town name inscribed on the top half and "AIR MAIL" inscription on the lower half. The date is inscribed at the centre. The Brunei airmail postmark is somewhat similar to North Borneo, just without the plane symbol at the centre of the rectangular postmark. The North Borneo postmark incorporates both the plane symbol and the inscription of "AIR MAIL NORTH BORNEO".

The North Borneo airmail postmark was used in the following towns:


As the dates imply, the route may have been from Jesselton to Kudat then to Sandakan, to Tawao and to Lahad Datu. From Lahad Datu the plane went to Sandakan and then to Kudat, before returning to Jesselton. That's the route in North Borneo. The two planes actually started their voyage in Singapore in 26 May 1930 to Kuching, Sarawak. From Kuching, the planes flew to Sibu and Miri in 30 May 1930. From Miri they then continued to Kuala Belait and Brunei capital in 1 June 1930. From there the flights then went to Jesselton in 2 June 1930.

Pictures



Airmail Rate

In 1930, the normal surface rate for letters in inland North Borneo and Labuan was 3c for the first ounce and 2c for the next additional ounce. Postcard rate was 2c. For foreign address the rate was 12 c for the first ounce and 10c for each subsequent ounce. Postcard rate was 4c.  To board the RAF seaplanes, an additional charge of 25c is applied for every half ounce of a letter in addition to the normal surface rate. This is not entirely bad, because in return, not only that your mail reach faster, but you will also get a special and rare airmail postmark, specifically designed for the flight. That's why most of the mails that boarded the planes were souvenir covers. In 1933, three seaplanes made similar surveying journeys (S1479, S1420 and S1151), but unfortunately did not carry any mail.

This is an example of Jesselton GPO postmark that appeared in ebay in Nov 2009 last year. This particular cover was sold for £42. This is an official cachet which was added to post office communications from approximately in 1890s until the outset of world war II (1943). The postmark on top right shows a date of "4 Dec 1933" while the lower left postmark shows the BNB coat of arms in the centre and inscribed * General Post Office * Jesselton B.N.B *. There are only two recorded post office official seals in North Borneo; the Jesselton GPO and Sandakan PO.

Sandakan GPO Postmark (1941)

Another fine example of the post office postmark in North Borneo. The date on top right corner is not very clear but my guess is that it is "18 June 1941". Compared to the Jesselton GPO mark on top, this particular post office postmark has a lot more detail, bigger in size and has a narrower space between the innner and outer rings. Like the one on top, this is a stampless cover with the "OGS" imprint and "Official Paid" mark (30.08.1939 - 18.06.1941). It also bears a red triangle inscibed "Passed for Transmission | North Borneo | 7 ". Sold by a German auctioneer for €85 in 2006.

Sandakan GPO Red Postmark (1891)



Description
1891 (6 Apr.) OHMS envelope "On Money Order Business" to Germany, showing superb large double-ring "post office/Coat of Arms/sandakan" cachet alongside equally fine "sandakan" c.d.s. (Type D4), both in red, the reverse with Singapore (14.4) and Erfurt (9.5) c.d.s.; a rare and most unusual cover. Estimated price: $ 1000 - $1,200.
Note: North Borneo joined the U.P.U. on 1 January 1891. Under U.P.U. regulations letters on Post Office business were free of postage.

A full set of stamps bearing the fake Kudat postmark of "KUDAT AU 15 1899 " in ebay, click here. Some of the postmarks are not very clear, but many of the high value stamps show the characteristic postmark, typically strucked right in the centre. The seller is, I believe, a reputable seller (100% feedback). I'm sure he wasn't aware of the fake postmark on the stamps, which highlights one of the biggest problems collectors may face - faked and forged stamps. The seller offers the set for US $199.99. Big price for such a collection! [Seller: roemer_1 ; ebay item no: 160395113675]

This is an example of the 'famous' fake Kudat postmark: KUDAT AU 15 1899 that I found on ebay while browsing the site. This particular stamp has an 8.5mm length between the two surcharges and is therefore supposed to be SG 126 and Scott 102 which values about US $24 and US $18 respectively. Unfortunately the seller offers it for US $ 44.99 which is 150% more than the Scotts catalogue value and 87% more than the Stanley Gibbons price! Imagine buying this price for the much rarer and high values stamp with 4.5 mm length between the surcharges. In Stanley Gibbons catalogue (2010), this particular postmark is considered to be fake and can be found in virtually all 1899 stamps (i.e. SG 112-126). In E. Proud's book, this is supposed to be the D3 postmark of Kudat even though there is no mention of this particular date as being fake. Nevertheless, it is always useful to be careful and watchful for this kind of trick. [Seller: filateliamk ; ebay item no: 360140667892]