Thursday, 22 July 2010
Garden Flower National Definitives (New Prints) - Serial Number
The serial number of new print garden flower national definitives starts at 2010/1. So far, I only acquired serial number blocks for denominations 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. These serial number blocks are just simply beautiful........
Tuesday, 20 July 2010
PSM Journal - The Malaysian Philatelist
Philatelic Society of Malaysia (PSM) owns a periodical known as The Malaysian Philatelist - two issues per year, comes out in June and December. I received the lastest issue of The Malaysian Philatelist two weeks ago (see the cover image below).
I contributed an article in the lastest issue of The Malaysian Philatelist. I wrote about the serial number, and gum and watermark varieties of the bird definitives. The bird definitives were issued on May 14, 2005. Since then, plenty of reprints have emerged and these reprints are indicated by serial numbers on the top margin of the 100-stamp-sheet. I compile the serial number and watermark-gum varieties into a checklist (see the table below). The checklist may not be exhaustive but it provides a good start for update and improvement. Please feel free to contact me if you have something not mentioned in the checklist.
Please kindly let me know if you need a soft copy of this article.
Choong, I. 2010. 2005 bird definitives - five years on. The Malaysian Philatelist. pp. 9-14.
I contributed an article in the lastest issue of The Malaysian Philatelist. I wrote about the serial number, and gum and watermark varieties of the bird definitives. The bird definitives were issued on May 14, 2005. Since then, plenty of reprints have emerged and these reprints are indicated by serial numbers on the top margin of the 100-stamp-sheet. I compile the serial number and watermark-gum varieties into a checklist (see the table below). The checklist may not be exhaustive but it provides a good start for update and improvement. Please feel free to contact me if you have something not mentioned in the checklist.
Please kindly let me know if you need a soft copy of this article.
Choong, I. 2010. 2005 bird definitives - five years on. The Malaysian Philatelist. pp. 9-14.
A Simple and Nice Cover from Sabah
Receiving a cover with nice clear handstamped postmark is something to cheer me up. Below is a cover sent from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. The cover is franked with a train stamp (the stamp is from the stamp booklet; click here to see the stamp issue) and postmarked at the Kota Kinabalu Mail Centre on June 25, 2010.
Pusat Mel Kota Kinabalu M9, Sabah; date: June 25, 2010
Monday, 19 July 2010
Ring Flaws on 60s Garden Flower Original Print - I
I was taken aback when I saw so many ring flaws at one time........... the 60s stamp from the garden flower definitive series (20-stamp-sheet) has many ring flaws. These ring flaws are consistent.
Garden Flower National Definitives - New Printing
The national series definitive stamps (garden flowers) were released on July 1, 2010. For philately purpose, the stamps were printed in the format of 20-stamp-sheet. These definitive stamps will replace the previous national definitive series (birds). For non-philately purpose, these garden flower definitive stamps are printed in the format of 100-stamp-sheet. Actually, the garden flower definitive stamps in the formats of 20-stamp-sheet and 100-stamp-sheet were released on the same day (July 1, 2010). Nevertheless, most post offices hold back the sale of the stamps from the format of 100-stamp-sheet.
The interesting thing about these definitive stamps is that the stamps from the 20-stamp-sheet (click here to see the image) and the stamps from the 100-stamp-sheet (see below) are different! These stamps are different in two features. Firstly, the stamps from 20-stamp-sheet have "2010" behind the word Malaysia but the stamps from 100-stamp-sheet lack "2010". This feature is good enough to claim that the stamps from the 100-stamp-sheet are "new" againts the stamps from the 20-stamp-sheet. Secondly, the 50s, 70s, 90s and RM2 stamps from the 100-stamp-sheet do not have white borders on right, left and top, but the other denominations 30s, 60s, 80s and RM1 are just the same as the stamps from the 20-stamp-sheet with white borders on right, left and top. I show an example of this border variation on 70s stamp (see image below).
Nevertheless, the micro-printing is still applied on the stamps from the 100-stamp-sheet. The design of sheet margins for the 100-stamp-sheet is similar as those of the bird definitives. So, serial number and Pos Malaysia logo are applied on the top margin of the stamp sheet. Time to hunt for serial numbers..... hehehehehehe
stamps from 100-stamp-sheet without "2010"
comparison of 70s stamps from 20-stamp-sheet (top) and 100-stamp-sheet (bottom)
The interesting thing about these definitive stamps is that the stamps from the 20-stamp-sheet (click here to see the image) and the stamps from the 100-stamp-sheet (see below) are different! These stamps are different in two features. Firstly, the stamps from 20-stamp-sheet have "2010" behind the word Malaysia but the stamps from 100-stamp-sheet lack "2010". This feature is good enough to claim that the stamps from the 100-stamp-sheet are "new" againts the stamps from the 20-stamp-sheet. Secondly, the 50s, 70s, 90s and RM2 stamps from the 100-stamp-sheet do not have white borders on right, left and top, but the other denominations 30s, 60s, 80s and RM1 are just the same as the stamps from the 20-stamp-sheet with white borders on right, left and top. I show an example of this border variation on 70s stamp (see image below).
Nevertheless, the micro-printing is still applied on the stamps from the 100-stamp-sheet. The design of sheet margins for the 100-stamp-sheet is similar as those of the bird definitives. So, serial number and Pos Malaysia logo are applied on the top margin of the stamp sheet. Time to hunt for serial numbers..... hehehehehehe
Sunday, 18 July 2010
2010 - Threatened Habitats
On July 15, 2010, Pos Malaysia released a set of three stamps to bring up an environmental issue - threatened habitats. Three important habitats being threatened in Malaysia are forest habitat (60s) , sea habitat (70s) and river habitat (80s). Of course, there are also other types of important habitats facing the same problem such as mangrove habitat. Stamps to raise public awareness on environmental issues, safety and health care (such as anti-smoking) are always my cup of tea.
I feel a sense of sadness when I look into these stamps..... the beautiful forest habitat is being cleared, and the tapir family (the mother, the father and the baby tapir) are wandering at the edge of forest looking at the tractor (60s stamp)..... so sad :(. Just look at the green sea turtle on the 70s stamp, I feel so hurt to see the fishing net tighting up the dying green sea turtle..... I feel like jumping into the sea to cut off the fishing net to release the green sea turtle. Oh, the otter is dying of hunger because the fishes in the river are all dead due to pollution (80s stamp).... sigh...
Worth to mention on this stamp issue is that this is the first stamp issue after the new postal tariff (July 1, 2010). The normal denominations 30s and 50s are now replaced by 60s and 80s. I was just a bit curious why denomination 70s appears on the stamp set, I could have speculated RM1 instead. Perhaps, issueing RM1 would make the stamp set a bit more expensive, and Pos Malaysia may just be considerable on the collector side not to issue RM1 stamp. Or perhaps, the 70s stamp is a nice value to combine with 80s to make it up to RM1.50 for Eupore rate (20 gram), to combine with 60s to make up to RM1.30 for Asia rate (30 gram) and to combine itself (2 pieces of 70s stamps) to make up to RM1.40 for Australia/New Zealand/Japan rate (20 gram)...... or maybe some other reasons.....
I feel a sense of sadness when I look into these stamps..... the beautiful forest habitat is being cleared, and the tapir family (the mother, the father and the baby tapir) are wandering at the edge of forest looking at the tractor (60s stamp)..... so sad :(. Just look at the green sea turtle on the 70s stamp, I feel so hurt to see the fishing net tighting up the dying green sea turtle..... I feel like jumping into the sea to cut off the fishing net to release the green sea turtle. Oh, the otter is dying of hunger because the fishes in the river are all dead due to pollution (80s stamp).... sigh...
Worth to mention on this stamp issue is that this is the first stamp issue after the new postal tariff (July 1, 2010). The normal denominations 30s and 50s are now replaced by 60s and 80s. I was just a bit curious why denomination 70s appears on the stamp set, I could have speculated RM1 instead. Perhaps, issueing RM1 would make the stamp set a bit more expensive, and Pos Malaysia may just be considerable on the collector side not to issue RM1 stamp. Or perhaps, the 70s stamp is a nice value to combine with 80s to make it up to RM1.50 for Eupore rate (20 gram), to combine with 60s to make up to RM1.30 for Asia rate (30 gram) and to combine itself (2 pieces of 70s stamps) to make up to RM1.40 for Australia/New Zealand/Japan rate (20 gram)...... or maybe some other reasons.....
Garden Flower Definitive RM2 - Ring Flaw
A pink colour small ring flaw has been detected in the RM2 Garden Flower Definitive. The stamp with the ring flaw is located at the most bottom row second stamp. The small ring flaw is just below the yellow petal of the flower. It is a consistent ring flaw occur in some (not all) watermark invert sheetlet. Check up your collection to see if you also posses the ring flaw stamp :)
the right stamp contains the a ring flaw
a close-up view of the ring flaw
2010 - National Definitive Series (Garden Flowers)
The postal tariff was revised on July 1, 2010. The domestic rate is affected by this new tariff adjustment. On conjunction of the new tariff rate, Pos Malaysia released new definitive stamps on July 1, 2010. The new definitive series contains eight denominations - 30s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, RM1 and RM2.
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.
micro-printing on the RM1 stamp
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.
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