The design of the stamps (six out of eight stamps - 30s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s) is similar to the state definitives issued on December 31, 2007. Two denominations (RM1 and RM2), however, have new designs. So, what happened was the state emblem/ruler on the state definitives was removed from the stamp design to turn these state definitives into national definitives.
Two types of watermark - upright and inverted - were recorded for all the eight denominations with almost equal number. Collectors on watermark varieties have to run around a few post offices in order to get all the watermark varieties for all the denominations because these watermark varieties were distributed randomly to different post offices. Have you got all the watermark varieties for all the eight denominations? I've got all the watermark varieties :)
These national definitive stamps are very special because they have micro-printing security feature. For the very first time in Malaysia philately, micro-printing is used as a security measure for postage stamp. The micro-printing is on the white area of the stamps. For example, the micro-printing words appearing on the RM1 stamp read as follow (see the image below):
POSMALAYSIANATIONALSERIES
RM1CANNAORIENTALIS
For the other denominations, POSMALAYSIANATIONALSERIES remains the same but the second wording is changed to the denomination and flower scientific name of the stamp, such as 30SENNELUMBIUMNELUMBO for 30s stamp, 50SENHYDRANGEAMACROPHYLLA for 50s stamp and so on.
