Malaysia modern stamps are normally printed on watermarked paper. The type of watermark commonly used is SPM, which is the abbreviation of Security Printer of Malaysia. The SPM watermark was applied on stamps as early as 1986. The word SPM is designed in a pattern of wave (Figure 1), thus it is called wavy SPM watermark.
The occurrence of watermark varieties in modern Malaysia stamps is considerably high. SPM watermarks in the format of upright (Figure 2), sideway up (Figure 3), sideway down (Figure 4), inverted (Figure 5), inverted-reversed (Figure 6) and sideway up-reversed (Figure 7) have been recorded on Malaysia stamps. A good number of stamps have two types of watermark (upright vs inverted or sideway up vs sideway down). In some instances, stamps with three types of watermark (Figure 8 and Figure 9) have also been recorded! Sometimes, stamps with different types of watermark are sold at different post offices. Therefore, the presence of watermark varieties makes serious collectors runing like a rabbit chasing for these varieties from different post offices. It is indeed tiring but definitely fun.
Figure 1: Wavy SPM watermark
Figure 2: Upright SPM watermark
Figure 3: Sideway up SPM watermark
Figure 4: Sideway down SPM watermark
Figure 5: Inverted SPM watermark
Figure 6: Inverted-Reversed SPM watermark
Figure 7: Sideway up-reversed SPM watermark
Figure 8: The miniature sheet of the Father of Independence released on 3 March, 2003 has three different watermarks - upright, inverted and inverted-reserved
Figure 9: One of the beta fish stamps released on 26 April, 2003 has three different watermarks - sideway up, sideway down and sideway up-reversed
