I finally got the opportunity to re-visit the shop after extensive renovation last year. The first time I visited the shop was in 2005, about 5 years ago. At that time, the shop was still in its old location. In 2010, I got myself a nice assortment of low values Irish stamps and some British Commonwealth stamps. Unfortunately they didn't have any collectible stamps from British Borneo or Malaya.

Raven stamps & Coins is the only philatelic shop in Ireland's second largest city, Cork. Situated in Washington Street, it is the centre for collectors from the southern province of Ireland, largely collecting Irish stamps, GB stamps overprinted the Irish Provisional Govt, as well as GB stamps used in Ireland. My favaourite Irish stamps is the engraved seahorse overprints (2/6, 5sh, and 10sh) but these are quite expensive and difficult to acquire. Another area of interest is the pre-stamps entire and Victorian covers used in Ireland.

The owner, Padraig O' Shea and his assistant are friendly gentlemen and would warmly welcome you to their shop. There's a radio interview by RTE to Mr. O' Shea a couple of years back, and you may listen the interview here. You can get an idea about the Irish stamps in general and listen to the Cork accent. :)

In my most recent visit, I asked about book reference relating to Irish postmarks as I'm getting more interested in collecting Irish stamps, especially the postmarks. His assistant handed me two books, one by David Feldman (1976) and another newer book but without reference on the postmarks. I didn't buy them as I already have my Stanley Gibbons for Irish stamps issues and the one by David Feldman is only for the shop's reference and not for sale. Nevertheless, it is quite unfortunate that I couldn't get any stamps from British Borneo esp. North Borneo. It would be nice to see covers sent from North Borneo to a rare destination like Ireland. Perhaps I should continue the hunt in Ireland's capital, Dublin!

I recently got this Brunei cover with A.V.2 mark on it. In ebay there're several North Borneo covers that appeared with the same circular mark, and I managed to get another one. A.V.2 stands for "Avion 2", a UPU term that signifies that the letter arrived at a transit point and had to be forwarded by air to its intended destination. It appears in airmail letters of certain countries between 1940s to 1960s. During and after the war, many countries tried to avoid the war zones routes and resulted in longer route requiring transits. A.V.2 is then applied on a letter on top of the bundle in the transit point, explaining the relative rarity of such postmark. The equivalent mark for A.V.2 is the O.A.T mark (usually in red) which means "Onward Air Transmission".

A.V.2 and O.A.T marks are virtually the same. Murray Heifitz did a pioneering research on these and published his findings in the Airpost Journal (from American Airmail Society) in December 1992. According to him, A.V.2 mark was used in Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Amman, Cairo, Tripoli and San Francisco from 1940 to 1957, and later in other places such as Prague in 1966. The O.A.T marking was used in London, Prestwick, Tangiers, Hong Kong and Amman from 1940 to 1945. Of these two, Heifitz estimates that about 1000 to 1500 of A.V.2 marks exist in collectors' hand (maybe even higher) while many more of letters with O.A.T mark exist, making the A.V.2 mark relatively rarer than the O.A.T mark. He lists 20 types of A.V.2 mark and 15 O.A.T marks based on about 500 letters.

Collecting A.V.2 mark

Because there are about 20 types of A.V.2 used in countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Jordan, Egypt, Libya, the US etc., this should be an interesting area to explore and collect, knowing the fact that only letter on top of the bundle receives the marking, making it quite rare. The O.A.T mark is probably not as common as the A.V.2 mark with regards to letters from British Borneo (N.Borneo, Sarawak, Labuan, Brunei) but discovery may still be made! Happy hunting.

Couldn't believe my eyes when I found this cover in ebay. The seller, apparently with just 13 feedbacks, tries to sell this very common, very typical generic FDC for an eye-poping price of £1,579! Even the opening bid is £1,200. In his description he writes: "This First Day Cover was released in conjunction of the coronation day of H.M Queen Elizabeth 2. In that year, Sarawak (now under Malaysia) was still  under British ruling. This rare artifact is more than 50 years old and is highly valuable. If you have successfully purchased it, please handle with care."

2010 passes with good and fond memories. As we usher the new year, may it brings prosperities and endless joys.
Happy Hunting and Have a Great New Year 2011!

First off, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2011! May it bring prosperous and joyous year to you! So for my winter break I went to Amsterdam and Athens for one week. I finally get a break from busy schedule in the hospital everyday. The holiday is definetely a good excuse to escape the bitterly cold winter in Ireland where pipes get blocked or even burst. My visit to Amsterdam was very brief as it served only as a transit to Greece. Nevertheless, I had about one full day to spend in the city. Finding a stamp shop was one of my primary motives in Amsterdam as I've enjoyed all the fun in the city including the notorious red light district and the breathtaking windmills when I visited the city 2 years ago. This time I was determined to look for another attraction the city has to offer.

Amsterdam on the 20th December was covered in snow. This made walking a bit difficult, slippery and wet. Finding philatelic shops without prior knowledge of the street was like finding rare stamps - you only find it if you are lucky. Fortunately I managed to find some 3 stamps shops in Nieuwezijds Voorbugwal Street after a long walk. The bad thing about stamps hunting in Christmas time is that many shops are closed and it was good enough that one of the three shops was open.

I went in and was duly greeted in Dutch. Then, realizing that I was clueless in Dutch the old man asked me "hello, how may I help you?". I said to him that I was looking for Borneo stamps and he then asked me "you mean Sarawak, Labuan, Brunei and North Borneo?" "Yes that", I replied, slightly amazed to the fact that he knows about the British Borneo. "Well I have some covers, postcards and some stamps, but unfortunately my assistant is not around today, he's usually the one handling that area of specialty, but you can come back again tomorrow...". I explained to him that I will be in Amsterdam only for the day and that I have to fly to Athens that night, so I requested to just see the collection, but unfortunately he didn't know where exactly the stamps were and insisted that I come back the next day.

After many futile attempts, I gave in and asked him whether he would take my email, but then being a traditional seller and IT-illiterate he said that he had no email and that he's not very familiar with selling stamps online. In the end, all I got was a picture of the shop :( The moral of the story is, plan your visit and stay longer in any one city.

Athens, Greece


I stayed in Athens for about a week visiting some Greek Islands, the ancient Greek ruins and temples. It was a fascinating country with beautiful panoramic scenes. But stamps-wise, it's no better than Amsterdam. I only started to look for stamps shops on Christmas eve which was of course pretty silly as many shops were closed. Finding a stamp shop in Athens was slightly more difficult than in Amsterdam as I didn't know much of the Greek letters, only relying from my vague Maths and Physics symbolisms. I had to look up in the internet so as not to waste my time wandering the many streets in the vast city. Nonetheless, I managed to find 2 stamps shops, both of which were closed. Both were situated in Stadiou street (10 and 39) between Syntagma and Omonia square.


There are of course many other stamps shops in Athens but I didn't bother to visit them as I know they're closed. Even the philatelic museum in Fokianou street was closed around Christmas time. Many other shops were closed as well, but I still get the chance to visit some interesting shops selling antique stuffs such as old coins and banknotes. Although I'm not a big fan of collecting these, I ended up spending hours looking at the old Greek currencies from one street to another. They're just interesting with varying designs incorporating the ancient Greek gods and mythology. My personal favourite was the old coin depicting an owl, which resembles closely to the current 1 Euro coin from Greece.

A visit to Mediterranean Greece was supposed to be an escape of the Irish winter. Although a year back, we heard of a violent riot in the city against the police, the city was actually quite peaceful during my visit. Nevertheless, I've seen some remnants of vandalisms on public buildings and facilities - the post office included. A post office just facing the Syntagma square had its window broken and smeared with red paints. Its kiosk vending stamps was burnt to the point of non functionality. But overall, the city was pleasant enough that I would consider coming back again, that time perhaps I would hunt for the awe-inspiring Hermes head stamps of Greece!

Philately is similar to fine art - it is the satisfaction, appreciation and understanding that count. In general, collectors have a special interest in rarity. Perfection is not the only big thing in collecting stamps, quite the opposite, freaks and errors also generate equal if not more interests.

The picture above shows a Labuan stamp with an inverted centre. This is basically an 8 cent postage due stamp of 1901 issue, with CTO mark on top right. Reportedly, less than 40 of such stamps exist, with a catalogue value (SG D6ba) of £ 9,500. It is currently auctioned in an auction house from US and has a bid of $6,500.