There seems to be a recent upsurge in interests in North Borneo postmarks, especially the rare, less commonly seen ones. The three pictures below are quite testimonial to this. All were listed in ebay from a Dutch seller, and actually ended today, 25 April 2010. Lot [1] reached a whooping winning bid of $765.51, while lot [2] and [3] managed to get more than $200 in hammer prices. All won by a single bidder, although with stiff competitions and attracted more than 10 enthusiastic bidders. 

In lot [1], let's have a look at the most obvious postmarks i.e. the ones on the $5, $10 and $2 stamps. The purple $5 stamp is the 1889 version, tied with Kudat circular date stamp (cds) right at the centre, dated 29 MR 1892. This is the second earliest postmark from Kudat. From 1886 - 1894, it is usually strucked in black ink and later from 1894 - 1895 in blue, before black ink being used again from 1895 - 1900. The the green $2 stamps bear essentially the same postmark, dated 17 SP 1892. The postmark in $10 shows the year in 2 digits compared to the $5 and $2.

The first and second rows consist of semipostal stamps overprinted with the carmine Maltese cross and black inscription of "Red cross two cents", produced in 1916 and 1918 respectively. A proportion of these stamps was sold by the National Philatelic War Fund in aid of the Society of British Red Cross and the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. This was to fund the wounded or for the soldier's widow and orphans, following the World War I, where Great Britain declared war on Germany in August 4, 1914. The stamps sold by the National Philatelic War Fund are usually mint, whereas the ones retained by the North Borneo company are either in mint condition or used postally. The postally used stamps with this overprint are particularly rare especially from towns other than Sandakan (the capital city from 1883 - 1946). In the picture above, at least 2 stamps bear a clear Kudat postmark on the overprinted stamps, while the rest show vague cds from the same town.

Interestingly, the lot also includes some of the earliest North Borneo stamps, largely bearing the Kudat postmark as well. This is to be expected because Kudat was the capital city of North Borneo from 1881 - 1883, before being moved to Sandakan.

This is Trengganu's (now called Terengganu) highest denomination stamp - $100 used both for postage and revenue purposes. It is unimaginable though, what kind of postage would cost $100 in 1921-1941. The stamp depicts Trengganu's Sultan Sulaiman Badrul Alam Shah (1920-1942). In Stanley Gibbons catalogue, this is SG47 and values at £6000 for mint stamp. In reality though, as always the case, the general market price is usually lower than that, and with this particular stamp, the hammer price is €3250, sold recently by a Spanish seller in an auction in March 22, 2010. Overall the stamp is beautifully preserved, well centered, with defect-free perforations. This is probably the "All-China-is-Red" of Trengganu, due to the fact that it is red and the most expensive of all Trengganu's stamps.

This month, the top 4 listings are dominated by collection lots from nystamps. All of the listings from this seller is without any description, just pictures. Unfortunately because of the sheer numbers of listings every week, the accompanying pictures are deleted as soon as the transaction is done. This means we don't have any information as to what the lots consist of. Nevertheless, I included the top 10 most expensive items this month, just to make it more representative. So here goes:

The selection criteria for this list include (a) stamps/philatelic items of North Borneo appearing in ebay, (b) must be available internationally and (c) must be on auction format only.

Check out the list in other months:
January 2010     February 2010

We have seen these steel blue revenue stamps somewhere, in eBay especially. Most of us, however, wouldn’t have a clue as to what they were or whether they’re worth collecting. In this blog, I will share some of the general information that every North Borneo collectors should know about the stamps.

Up to 1890s, all North Borneo stamps had been engraved by Thomas MacDonald. It is therefore assumed that the $25 revenue stamps were also engraved by the same person, although there is a lack of reference on this. The stamps were lithographed by Blades East & Blades on white paper in sheets of 20, arranged in 4 horizontal rows X 5. Each stamp measures about 3.4cm X 4.15 cm.

Colour Trials

Stanley Gibbon catalogue does not list these stamps because it only lists postage stamps. This is also true in Scott catalogue, where only USA revenue stamps are listed. Therefore, there are no credible references as to their values. Values are therefore an educated guess at best. The general rule is that the CTO stamps should be valued at around their face value although this can be slightly lower or higher depending on the sellers. The mint stamps should be relatively more expensive than the CTOs and therefore should be valued higher than the face value. In ebay however, there is a wide range of prices depending on the individual seller. On average, these stamps would sell around $15-$25 each. A block of stamps would sell much higher but not in direct multiplication of the general market price for an individual stamp. For example the block of 6 imperforated CTO stamps above sells for around $45.