The agro-based product series can be considered the longest running issue of the modern Malaysian definitive issues since the orchid state series in 1965. Not surprisingly, many reprints have been emerged for the last 20 years since the release of this series, in particular for the period of 1993-1999. Due to the pending of the release of the new state definitives (it only came out on 31 December, 2007; the info of the new state definitive issue can be found at http://kajang-stamps.blogspot.com/2008/01/malaysia-new-state-definitives.html), the printing of the agro-based product definitives was done in a small quantity and at ad hoc basis. Some of these reprints survived in a very short time. Thus, this has inflated the value of these stamps generally.
Perforation variation is the most prominent change in these reprints. The original stamps have a perforation of 12. Other perforations such as 14 X 13.75, 14 X 14.5, 14.75 X 14.5 and 13.5 X 13.75 have also come into existence in the reprints. Apart from the perforation, variations in gum (cream, blue, green and mottled) and watermark (inverted, missing and sideway) have also been recorded on these stamps. It seems to be the case that all these varieties are mostly recorded in most used denominations - 5c, 10c, 20c and 30c. Stamps with denominations of 1c, 2c and 15c have long been ceased from production. Thus, these denominations do not contain too many varieties.
These state defintives were printed in a sheet of 100 stamps. Each corner margin of a sheet is printed with plate number and colour guide. The printing of plate number on the sheet margin will identify the batch of printing of the stamps, hence can trace the stamps back to the source and time of printing. The first batch of printing, when these stamps were released in 1986, had a plate number 1A, and the number had since been moving up to the last plate number of 14A. The collecting of plate number of these agro-based series has been challenging and exciting indeed. This is partly attributed to the difficulty in getting corner margin block of 4 from post office counters as margins of stamp sheet are normally torn off before the stamps are sold at the counters. Asking one clerk at a post office counter about the practice of tearing off margins, she told me that this is to prevent customers from littering and sticking torn-off margins on walls and tables.
To add more fun to the agro-based definitives, two prominent changes happened in the reprints much later involving two states - agro-based definitives of Sarawak had its state crest changed officially on September 1, 1993 and new sultan portrait of Terengganu appeared on the reprints in 1998. Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin was crowned on May 15, 1998 as the sultan of Terengganu due to the departure of his Majesty's father Sultan Mahmud Al Muktafi Billah Shah.
The fun of collecting the agro-based reprints does not stop here. Started in 2002, the currency unit c in the stamps was replaced by sen. A few states issued this type of reprints, and the plate number system on the printing of sheet margins has been also replaced by the system of series number. I shall talk about this in some other time.
