Malaysia - Slogan Postmark

The slogan postmark below reads as:


BELI KOMPUTER
DI PEJABAT POS
IBM HP GATEWAY


Bukit Raja, Selangor; date: October 18, 2000

Malaysia - Slogan Postmark

The slogan postmark below reads as:


SATU DEKAD PENGURUSAN
ALAM SEKITAR DI MALAYSIA
12HB JUN 1985


Ipoh, Perak; date: June 24, 1985

Many Faces of Sungai Siput............

Sungai Siput, to be more precise Sungai Siput (U), is a small town located at the northern part of Perak. I grew up there, and therefore it has given me so much of memory. The post office of Sungai Siput is situated in the middle of the town, and it has been the centre for managing mail from and to Sungai Siput. Throughout the history of the post office, many postmarks have been in used for mail cancellation. The name of the town in the postmarks appears in different versions i.e. Sungei Siput, Sungai Siput and Sg Siput. I have a small collection of Sungai Siput postmarks which I am so delighted to share.


Sungei Siput K1, Perak; date: August 4, 1998

Sungei Siput K, Perak; date: October 27, 2000
the format of this postmark is similar to the previous one except the "K1" becomes "K"

Sungei Siput K1, Perak; date: December 3, 1993
the format of date is different from the above two, and the size of this postmark is also slight larger

Sungei Siput K, Perak; date: May 19, 1998
the format of this postmark is similar to the previous one except the "K1" is replaced by "K"

Sungei Siput C1, Perak; date: January 24, 1989
this postmark has a "C1"

Sungei Siput C, Perak; date: January 27, 1984
this postmark is similar to the previous one except the "C1" is replaced by "c"

Sungei Siput K2, Perak; date: April 29, 2000
this postmark has a "K2"


Sungai Siput M, Perak; date: August 3, 2000


Sungei Siput; date: August 31, 1957
this postmark has a time (9.45am)

Sungei Siput, Perak; date: November 23, 1995
this postmark has a time (02-0PTG meaning 2.00pm)


Sungei Siput, Perak; date: April 1, 2002
this postmark is a machine cancellation


Sungai Siput, Perak; date: December 9, 1985
this postmark is actually used for cancelltion of first day covers

Beautiful Stamps of Malaysia - Bantams

Pos Malaysia does from time to time issue beautiful stamps. One of the beautiful stamp sets that I treasure so much is the bantam stamp set released on August 1, 2001. The bantam images on the stamps and miniature sheet were designed by Mr. Teh Yew Kiang who is a well unknown Malaysian artist specializing in birds! In fact, Mr. Teh has been assisting Pos Malaysia in the design of bird stamps. The latest bird stamp issue (unique birds of Malaysia) was also the artwork of Mr. Teh.

the stamp set contains three denominations - 30 sen, 50 sen and RM1
perforated miniature sheet
imperforated miniature sheet
the miniature sheet was overprinted for Phila Nippon 2001

Malaysia 2009 - Traditional Wedding Costumes

Pos Malaysia released her third stamp issue on March 23, 2009 on the topic of costumes. Five different traditional wedding costumes were depicted on five 50-sen stamps - Malay, Indian, Chinese, Orang Ulu and Bajau. The stamps were printed in the format of strip of five. Apart from the five 50 sen stamps, a booklet was also released. The booklet contains ten 30-sen stamps (two sets of stamps) with five different designs as those of the 50-sen stamps. The stamps from the booklet have different background. Two different watermarks (SPM) have been recorded for the stamps from the booklet - upright and inverted watermarks.

stamps from stamp sheet
stamps from booklet; two different watermarks (upright and inverted) have been recorded for these stamps
front cover of the stamp booklet

A Cover from Germany

Mulheim An Ber Ruhr 12, 45472; date: March 13, 2009

Malaysia - SPM Watermark

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

Malaysia - Aerogramme

This aerogramme was sent from Sg Siput to an address in the United Kingdom on November 19, 1997. The pictorial aerogramme shows the rich biological diversity of Endau-Rompin Park, Malaysia. Species of fungus (Cookeina tricholoma), fern (Selaginella willdenovii) and flowering plant (Spathoglottis aurea) are shown on the front of the aerogramme. On the other hand, the printed stamp on the aerogramme depicts a chamelon Calotes cristatellus.

Sg Siput, Perak; date: November 19, 1997

Malaysia - Aerogramme

This aerogramme was sent from Sg Siput to an address in the United Kingdom on November 6, 1998. The pictorial aerogramme was released to commemorate Malaysia as the host country for XVI Commonwealth Games 1998. The printed stamp on the aerogramme depicts the Malawati Stadium in Shah Alam, Selangor.

Sg Siput, Perak; date: November 6, 1998

Ireland - Slogan Postmark

I got a small cover from a dealer when I was in England in the middle of 1990s. It is a cover from Ireland. I like it because it has a clear and nice slogan postmark sending a message on donating kidney. The slogan postmark reads as "BE A KIDNEY DONOR". The cover was posted from Baile A'tha Cliath on August 26, 1985.

Malaysia - Slogan Postmark

The slogan postmark below reads as:

HARI KELAUTAN SEDUNIA
WORLD MARITIME DAY
27-30 SEPTEMBER


Jln Sultan, Petaling Jaya, Selangor; date: October 2, 1986

Malaysia - Aerogramme

Below is an aerogramme sent from Sg Siput to Great Britain on July 28, 1998. This pictorial aerogramme shows the image of Forest Research Insitute Malaysia (FRIM). The printed stamp on the aerogramme depicts timber species Dryobalanop aromatica, locally known as kapur.

Sg Siput, Perak; date: July 28, 1998

Watermark Variety - Visual Art (2008)

On August 28, 2008, Pos Malaysia issued modern arts stamps (click here to see the whole set of stamps). All the stamps are SPM watermarked. However, the 30 sen stamp (see the image below) has two different watermarks - upright and inverted. It is said that the inverted watermark one is less common.

Spirit of Ledang by Syed Ahmad Jamal (2003); painted using acrylic on canvas

Laos - Wedding Costumes

The next stamp issue (March 23, 2009) for Malaysia is wedding costumes. To warm up the release of the Malaysia stamp wedding costume issue, I am delighted to show you an issue of wedding costumes released by Laotian postal authority. The stamps were released on 30 October, 2000.

Malaysia-Singapore Joint Issue - Birds

Pos Malaysia and Singapore Post released a joint stamp issue on June 27, 2002 on topic of birds. The stamp design of both the postal authorities was similar. Four different bird species depicted on this fine stamp set, i.e. white-bellied black woodpecker (30s, black-naped oriole (30s); Shelly's sunbird (RM1) and blue-backed fairy bluebird (RM1). The stamps were issued in setenant pair format in a sheet containing 20 stamps. I noted that some stamp sheets (not all) have serial number on the left margin of the sheet (see the image below).

Malaysia Postmarks 033

Jalan Pasir Puteh M1, Perak; date: April 18, 1990
Butterworth 3, Pulau Pinang; date: May 31, 1999
Sungai Petani, Kedah; date: February 10, 2004

A Cover from Thailand

Rong Muang, 10330, 12; Date: March 1, 2009

A Cover from Portugal

Amadora, 2700, EC1; Date: February 28, 2009

Malaysia - Slogan Postmark

The slogan postmark below reads as:

ALAM SEKITAR
MEMERLUKAN ANDA

Ipoh, Perak; Date July 1, 1986