Ian's Collection: State Definitive Agro Based Sen

State definitive Agro Based stamps were issued on October 25, 1986. In the early of 2000s, Pos Malaysia was planning to replace these state definitive stamps with new defintive stamps. The plan of having new definitive stamps had been delayed a few times, and not until May 14, 2005 only we saw the light of the new definitive stamps (bird definitives). The Agro Based state defintives had been printed at adhoc basis while waiting for the emergence of the new bird definitives. In 2003, the printing of these Agro Based stamps become "extremely" adhoc, particularly for denomination 30c, and only a few states had their 30c Agro Based printed, i.e. Pulau Pinang, Kedah, Selangor, Wilayah Persekutuan, Johor and Pahang. The Agro Based stamps printed at that period had denomination inscribed in "sen" instead of "c". The Agro Based sen (except the Wilayah Persekutuan) lasted only for a short life when the new bird definitives came out finally on May 14, 2005. Many collectors were caught off by the very short life of these Agro Based sen as most collectors thought that these stamps would flood the market like the normal Agro Based stamps (denomination inscribed in "c"). Collectors just couldn't be bothered by the presence of these Agro Based sen stamps. So, most of these Agro Based sen stamps were purchased by companies and offices for sending bulk mail. I believe these bulk mail were most likely ended up in dust bins or the stamps maybe just cut off from the covers/mail as kiloware, and some of them (used stamps) maybe just ended up in stamp albums of young/kid collectors. Therefore, Agro Based sen stamps on commercial covers (for the period 2002-2005) could be very much less common.

These Agro Based sen stamps (30 sen) were printed for Pulau Pinang, Kedah, Selangor, Wilayah Persekutuan, Johor and Pahang states. However, all these Agro Based sen stamps of different states were sold at post offices throughout the country regardless the state. Therefore, one may see the Kedah Agro Based sen with Butterworth (Pulau Pinang) postmark or Johor Agro Based sen with Kuantan (Pahang) postmark. Worth to note here that the earliest serial number (on the margin of sheet-of-100) for these Agro Based sen stamps is 2002/01. Serial number 2002/01 has been recorded for Pahang and Wilayah Persekutuan Agro Based sen (information from Johnson Sau). Therefore, these Agro Based sen stamps were printed as early as 2002. Currently, the market price for these Agro Based sen stamps (except Wilayah Persekutuan) is RM6 per a single mint copy.