North Borneo 1950-59 Definitives in Stamp Magazine
After about 2 months of inactivity, I'm back with the usual business. I was in Dublin for some stroll when this Stamp Magazine issue September 2012 caught my wary eyes. Finally, someone, somewhere is actually writing about North Borneo stamps in the Stamp magazine! This is indeed a rare feat as I've been following Stanley Gibbons, Stamp Magazine (UK) and the Scotts magazine (USA) for quite sometime and in the last few years there has been no article on North Borneo, let alone Labuan. There are of course articles related to Sarawak, Brunei and Malaya in the last few months. You might start to wonder whether North Borneo is that unpopular among Commonwealth collectors.
Anyway, Len Stanway wrote a nice article about North Borneo's 1950s definitive series. He covered the historical aspects and the substandard designs of the series in a great detail. From relatively blurry images to uninspiring choices of depictions, the stamps series were largely received with disappointment among collectors. The 50¢ stamp for example, had the capital name spelt wrongly from JESSELTON to JESSLETON. Although this probably gives us some sentimental philatelic feel now, it didn't quite impress much the collectors back then. Subsequent Queen Elizabeth II stamps issue used the exact same designs.
What further caught my eyes was Silamstar's Papar cover which was used in the article: Click here for the picture and here for the Papar postmark entry. Further, Anthony's Salvaged mail was also included in the article: Click here.
What further caught my eyes was Silamstar's Papar cover which was used in the article: Click here for the picture and here for the Papar postmark entry. Further, Anthony's Salvaged mail was also included in the article: Click here.
