P000000 - Spices

Date of issue: 28 March 2011

Spices

P000000

P000000 - Malaysia-Indonesia Joint Issue

Date of issue: 8 August 2011

Malaysia-Indonesia Joint Issue

P000000

P000000 - Palaces

Date of issue: 18 July 2011

Palaces

P000000

Poll Results: Most Favourite Stamp Issues For 2011

Consecutively for the third year I put up a poll asking visitors to this blog to vote on their most favourite Malaysia stamp issues. After roughly two weeks of poll race for the 14 stamp issues for year 2011, 94 times of vote casting had been recorded. Visitors were asked to choose three most favourite stamp issues. However, I noted that not all vote casting followed strictly the instruction (some only chose one or two stamp issues instead of three). Nevertheless, my great appreciations go to those who had taken part in the poll. The result from the poll is shown in the graph below.

It looks like the Personalised Stamps and Virtues issues had a close race, both of them top the list having 44 and 43 votes respectively. This is closely followed by Royal Institutions issue with 39 votes. Post Boxes issue is also not doing badly by having 27 votes. The Children’s Pets (20 votes), Highland Tourist Spots (18 votes), Aviation in Malaysia (16 votes) and Smart Tunnel (17 votes) issues are doing moderately. Spices (14 votes), Palaces (13 votes), Artifacts (8 votes), Malaysia-Indonesia Joint Issue (6 votes) are not that palatable. Suzuki Cup (3 votes) and Visual Arts – II (2 votes) issues are placed at the bottom of the list.

I think the stamp issues in year 2011 are average good, however, not having one or two outstanding issues. It is clearly demonstrated by the best choices (Personalised Stamps and Virtues) not having more than 50% votes (50% of 94 votes is 47). Some voters complained stamp set is nice but not the miniature sheet or vice versa for some stamp issues. So, they were having difficult time to make their choices. As for myself, I had chosen Children's Pets, Post Boxes and Highland Tourist Spot.

Different people have different preferences. We all have chosen what we like, and we respect each other's preferences.

I assure you that a similar stamp poll for year 2012 will be conducted. Please do come back to cast your votes in December 2012!

Happy collecting……………

Vote for Your Most Favourite Stamp Issues

Finally, the Malaysia stamp issuing programme for year 2011 has come to an end. What a fruitful year indeed for a total of 14 stamp issues released for the year 2011. There are some stamp issues attract more attention to the others, and there are some appear to be more appealing than the others. Different people might have different preferences. Would you like to voice up your preferences for these stamp issues?

Consecutively for the third year I am putting up a poll asking you to vote on the most favourite Malaysia stamp issues. You may find the vote casting form at the left hand side of this blog. Please choose THREE most favourite stamp issues. The deadline for vote casting is on 31 December 2011. I will show you the final result after the vote casting closes.

Happy voting………

Click here to see the images of all the below stamp issues.

18.01.2011 Children’s Pets
21.02.2011 Highland Tourist Spots
28.02.2011 Suzuki Cup
28.03.2011 Spices
11.04.2011 Artifacts
28.04.2011 Personalized Stamps
13.06.2011 Virtues
07.07.2011 Aviation in Malaysia
18.07.2011 Palaces
08.08.2011 Malaysia-Indonesia Joint Issue
19.09.2011 Visual Arts - II
10.10.2011 Post Boxes
21.11.2011 Smart Tunnel
12.12.2011 Royal Institutions

You may view the results for year 2010 here and year 2009 here.

2011 - Royal Institute

Pos Malaysia released the last stamp issue on 12 December 2011. The stamp set entitled Royal Institute contains three stamps with denominations 60s, 80s and 90s.

2011 - Smart Tunnel

Pos Malaysia released a stamp set on November 21, 2011 depicting the Smart Tunnel. This stamp set consists of six stamps with denomination 60s each and a miniature sheet. The miniature sheet contains two 3D-stamps with denominations RM2 and RM3. These stamps and miniature sheet were printed by Joh. Enschede Security Print in the Netherlands. These stamps and miniature sheet have fluorescent mark as that of Post Box stamps. The stamps have gum but the miniature sheet is self-adhesive.

2011 - Post Boxes

Pos Malaysia released new stamp sets on October 10, 2011. The stamp sets contain five stamps (denomination RM1 each) from sheetlet and five stamps (denomination 60 sen) from booklet.

 

stamps from stamp sheet

from view of stamp booklet

the view inside stamp booklet

2011 - Visual Arts II

Pos Malaysia released a set of three stamps on topic of Visual Arts on September 19, 2011. This is the second series of the visual art issue. The first series of Visual Arts stamps were released on August 28, 2008.

I saw the poster and banner of this Visual Arts issue in post offices a few days before the date of issue. The 60s stamp was quite appealing among the three stamps in the poster/banner. However, I was totally taken aback when I saw the real stamps on the date of issue. The 60s stamp is the ugliest one, and this might have been due to the over-dose of colour of the 60s stamp. Instead, I quite like the 90s stamp - simple and clean.

2011 - Phila Nippon '11 Overprint on KTM MS

Pos Malaysia released an overprint on miniature sheet for the stamp exhibition Phila Nippon 11'. The stamp exhibition was held in Japan in August 2011. The overprint was done on the KTM miniature sheet of that issued in 2010 (click here to see this original miniature sheet). This KTM miniature sheet was also overprinted previously for stamp exhibition Bangkok 2010 (click here to see this Bangkok 2010 overprint). So, this is the first time Pos Malaysia made overprint twice on the same miniature sheet.

2011 - Malaysia-Indonesia Joint Issue

Pos Malaysia released a set of eight stamps on a joint issue of Malaysia-Indonesia on August 8, 2011. The stamps are produced in a format of sheetlet. The counterpart Indonesia also relaesed eight stamps with similar designs today. Pos Malaysia issued perforated and imperforated sheetlets for this joint issue.


perforated sheetlet

imperforated sheetlet

Virtue Stamp - Original vs Reissued

The virtue stamps issued on June 13, 2011 created a little storm because one of the stamps in the set portraying "THANK YOU" is controversial. The original print of the stamp contain Hindi language of THANK YOU while the re-issued print of the stamp contain Tamil language of THANK YOU. The reissued stamps were released on July 18, 2011.

original print

reissued print

2011 - Palaces

Pos Malaysia released a stamp set (palaces of Malaysia) on July 18, 2010. The stamp set contains 10 different stamps, each with denomination RM1, printed in the format of block-of-10. At the same time, a prestige stamp booklet was also released. The prestige stamp booklet contains 20 stamps (two of each stamp design from the stamp sheet). So, the prestige stamp booklet has stamp value amounting RM20. However, the issuing price for the prestige stamp booklet is RM25.


a stamp sheet containing 10 different stamps

the front cover of the prestige stamp booklet

one of the 10 stamp containing pages from the prestige stamp booklet


For serious collectors, the stamps from the stamp sheet and the prestige stamp booklet are different (eventhough the stamp designs are similar) because the stamps from these two sources have different perforations.

For the stamp sheet, all the vertical perforations have a size of P14. On the other hand, the top and the middle horizontal perforations are of size P13.75. However, the bottom horizontal perforation for the stamp sheet has a size of P14.5.

For booklet stamps, all the horizontal perforations are of size P14.75. The top horizontal perforation is of size P14.5, but the bottom horizontal perforation is of size P13.75.

2011 - 100 Years of Aviation in Malaysia

Pos Malaysia released a set of three stamps on July 7, 2011 to commemorate 100 years of aviation in Malaysia. The stamps were sold out in all post offices in the morning. It is learnt that the aviation body of Malaysia bought up over 40,000 sets leaving roughly 60,000 sets for sale at post office counters throughout the country. So, this is a "hot" issue.

2011 - Virtues

Pos Malaysia released a set of 10 stamps on June 13, 2011. The topic of the stamp set is virtues. I personally do not find these stamps are attractive. The price of a blank cover is now priced at 50 sen, an increase of 20 sen.... Harga RON97 naik 20 sen, harga gula naik 20 sen, harga sampul naik jugak 20 sen....

2011 - Personalized Stamps

Pos Malaysia released new personalized stamps on April 28, 2011. For the very first time Pos Malaysia issued official first day cover on personalized stamps. The new set of personalized stamps come in four different designs, two with denomination 35s and the other two with denomination 65s. These personalized stamps are printed in a sheet containing two full stamp sets (altogether eight stamps), and they are sold at face value for this special release (a single stamp sheet is sold at RM4). For this official release of the personalized stamps, Pos Malaysia places some nice graphic images on the customized part of the personalized stamps. It looks like the printing of these special graphic images on the customized part was done together at the same time of the printing of the whole personalized stamps. In other other words, these official personalized stamps are not similar to that of the normal personalized stamps where the customerized part (portrait/personal photo) is done separately using ink-jet colour printer. I personally think that these stamps (released on April 28, 2011 printed with special graphic images) are rather special stamps than personalized stamp. It is learnt that Pos Malaysia released/issued limited copy number of this official personalized stamp sheet. However, the single stamp sheet customized with personal portraits/photos will be released later, and most likely would be sold at RM19 or RM20 per sheet.

2011 - Artifacts of National Heritage

Pos Malaysia released a set of 10 stamps on April 11, 2011. The title of the stamp issue is Artifacts of National Heritage. The stamps are printed in format of strip-of-5. Four strip-of-5 stamps (altogether 20 stamps) form a stamp sheet. So, there are two different stamp sheets for this issue. The stamp sheet with blue/grey background has SPM inverted watermark while the stamp sheet with brown/yellow background has SPM upright watermark.

2011 - Spices

Pos Malaysia released new stamps on March 28, 2011. The stamp issue depicts spices normally used in Malaysian cooking. The stamp set contains three denominations - 60 sen, 90 sen and RM1. Besides, a miniature sheet (RM3) and a stamp booklet (RM6) were also issued. The miniature sheet contains two stamps - one with denomination RM1 and the other one is RM2. On the other hand, the booklet contains 10 different stamps with 60 sen each.

The common watermark for the stamp set is SPM inverted and for the miniature sheet is SPM sideway down. On the other hand, the booklet stamps have two different watermarks - SPM sideway up and SPM sideway down. Both the watermark varieties of booklet stamps should be in equal number.

The 60 sen stamp from the stamp set portrays cinnamon or in Malay kayu manis. I told the postal staff at the philatelic counter - benda ini macam kayu balak lah (this thing looks like timber logs). A collector/customer next to me told me that he just wanted to say the same thing... hahahahahaha


stamp set
miniature sheet
stamp booklet - the front cover
stamps from booklet

Tourist Spots - Maxicards

The below maxicards were issued by Pos Malaysia. These maxicards are special because the cancellation (place/township/location) matches well the tourist sites as portrayed in the stamps and cards.


Bukit Bendara postmark

Cameron Highlands postmark

Langkawi postmark

Kundasang postmark

Indipex 2011 Overprint on Rabbit MS

Pos Malaysia attended Indipex 2011 in India on February 12-18, 2011. The rabbit miniature issued on January 18, 2011 was overprinted with the logo of Indipex 2011. The Indipex 2011 overprint of rabbit MS come in two formats - perforated and imperforated MS.