After being relatively inactive in stamps for about 2 months, I am now back into the usual stamps hunting. The latest addition to my collection are these 8 covers with the 3-line post-war cancels of Sandakan and Brunei. These postmarks were supplied by the New Straits, Singapore after the war and thus would usually appear on the BMA stamps, commonly from 1945-1946.

In North Borneo, there are postmarks for Jesselton, Tenom, Tawao, Sandakan, Lahad Datu, Labuan, Kudat and Beaufort. The Jesselton mark is only for proof strike and not seen postally used. The postmark from Beaufort and Tawao are probably the rarer ones among these. The Labuan postmark on the other hand has a morse code for "B.M.A" which is relatively unique among the others.

The 3-line postmarks were also produced for use in Brunei and Sarawak. For Brunei, there are 4 varieties of postmarks from the two towns - Brunei and Kuala Belait. In Sarawak there are postmarks produced for Sibu, Marudi, Bintulu and Lawas. The Lawas postmark has only 2 lines.

It's not like we have any cassowary, palm cockatoo or tapir in North Borneo, but why would these animals depicted in North Borneo stamps? One reason is that the North Borneo Company had a philatelic market in mind when designing these stamps. They are designed not only for postal purposes but also serve as collectibles, which of course increases the government's revenue further.

As a result, many North Borneo stamps are considered to be among the most beautiful stamps compared to other Commonwealth countries but remain relatively unpopular among collectors because of the mass production not matched by authentic postal requirements. As a result, many of the North Borneo stamps available in the market today are cancelled-to-ordered, which sell for a fraction of the value of postally used or mint stamps. Nevertheless, there are some interesting stories of the design in the second pictorials especially the cassowary stamp.

Cassowary in general, is native to the tropical forests of New Guinea and not found anywhere in North Borneo. So why would this flightless bird chosen for North Borneo stamps instead of other birds? The answer is, it's a mistake in design! According to L. Shipman's Postal History of North Borneo (part III), the bird intended was Megapode (Megapodius freycinet) not a cassowary.

According to Bertram E. Smythies in his book "Birds of Borneo", the megapode family is mainly found in Australo-Papuan region but they are also found in North Borneo by one island species on Labuan and its sattelites; and on the islands off the north coast of North Borneo, and in coastal jungle not far from Sandakan.

Supporting the theory that megapode was the intended bird, in the "Laws of North Borneo" published in 1936, the 24 cents stamp is referred to as megapode rather than a cassowary. It is therefore apparent that the intended bird was a megapode rather than a cassowary but an error in choosing the design may have occured resulting in the wrong design altogether. The stamps were recess-printed by Waterlow & Sons Ltd, but unfortunately, there is no record of the name of the craftsman who engraved the dies.

The depiction of the Great Black Cockatoo is deliberate and not a mistake like the cassowary stamp. It is an unfortunate choice because it is never found in North Borneo and mainly found in Papua New Guinea-Australia region. Although undeniably the cockatoo stamp is beautiful and adds to the approximately 20 animals depicted in the whole North Borneo philatelic zoo, it lacks originality and real representation of North Borneo. Nevertheless, the depiction of palm cockatoo does not end for the 1909-1923 issues only but also re-engraved for the 1939 issue of the 2 cents stamp. Someone in the North Borneo company must love this bird so much!



The Malaya tapir is another unwise choice for the North Borneo stamp. It does not exist in North Borneo although fossils have been excavated at the Niah caves in Sarawak. But tapir is certainly a better choice than the cassowary and the palm cockatoo...

Over the last couple of months, many sets of fake North Borneo stamps with Japanese overprints appeared periodically in ebay. When it first started in mid January this year, many people were more than happy to bid for them, perhaps for reference purposes. The final prices for these forged overprints when they were first introduced in ebay were relatively high, more so than you would expect in genuine mint copies without the overprints. Obviously many people are interested in possessing copies of these 'rare gems'. Some copies are evidently quite attractive and mouth-watering...

Nevertheless, a quick glance on the overprints shows very obvious forgery. The forged Japanese letters are thicker and appear too smooth compared to the authenthic overprints. The ink colour is in stark contrast to the genuine example.

As there is a very limited amount of literature or reference regarding the forged Japanese overprint, it is vital for everyone to get used to and become familiar with the normal authentic overprints. I think it is also important to keep that small grain of suspicions especially when something seemingly very rare appear, especially in ebay. All the stamps shown here are forgeries - I'll keep them for future reference.

The two stamps above are neither faked nor forged, they are genuine in every respect and would certainly get a certificate of authenticity from the Royal Philatelic Society (RPSL) or whatever authoritative body there is. The issue is not the stamp but the seller. These two stamps along with other high value stamps of North Borneo and other countries have been listed periodically in ebay by a seller named marys-gems.

If you look at the first stamp:

And when you click at the top bidder, here's what you find:

All activities of this particular bidder revovles around only two sellers! From Jan 02 to Feb 25 2011, approximately in two months period, this remain unchanged, showing that the bidder only bid on this one seller and I suspect the other account of the same seller (emmastamps). It is of course quite unlikely to bid stamps just from one or two sellers and not from the other sellers. Surely there are many more cheaper stuffs in ebay that the bidder can bid on. This raises the suspicion of shill bidding. Pay close attention on the second highest bidder as well.

Now if we look at the other example of the North Borneo $10 stamp, we'll see that:

We'll see that the top winner was the second highest bidder on the previous item! This bidder, incidentally, is no longer a registered user. And when you click on the his account, you'll see that all (100%) bidding activity is placed on the seller marys-gems involving items such from Fiji, Ireland, Malaya etc. This pushes the possibility of shill bidding even further...

From various discussion in stamps forum or general online site, the seller marys-gems is quite well known among other philatelic bidders in ebay. In Stampboards.com for example, there's a specific thread dedicated to this seller and some other dodgy sellers. Click here for more information on the tricks and shameful shill bidding techniques employed by the seller. From the discussions, we also know that the seller uses another account by the name of emmastamps!

All this, I believe, is to scam the non-suspecting bidders, especially the ones without good knowledge on the general market price of a particular item. Ebay of course would not care much about the rampant shill bidding because they still get their 10% revenue when items are sold. The more people spent on the item, the richer ebay will become. So why would they employ they resources to police these activities when they can pretend not to know and at the same time increasing their profit? Of course if you report these shameful acts to them under the much touted buyer protection scheme, you may actually get some seller kicked off, but many people have reported this particular seller, but I still see him/her doing his/her uusual shill bidding and scam.

As a conclusion, for a safer online bidding experience and transaction, please don't forget to regularly check the seller as well as the bidders. This will protect you against rip-off and online scams! Ebay is not protecting you enough...