Sunday 3 June 2012

some interesting cancellations on Brunei

I have a very small collection of Brunei with some interesting postmarks. The above is a D1 in striking bright violet with the year missing which is apparently not uncommon. It is very rarely seen in blue. Also note the "I" in Brunei is situated lower resulting in a slight asymmetry. The year when present is in smaller numerals.
Update This is the same as the Madam Joseph fake fixed date cancellation for Brunei but the date recorded for that is 13 JUL (no year).

                                   Another D1 with the just 2 numerals for the year.

This is a rather intriguing D1 with a foreign postmark which I initially thought to be Labuan. It has the date 2:(30) JY 14 10 with the first letter L and last letter N visible. It does not fit any known Labuan postmark. This is probably either a Malayan or GB arrival cancellation.




We have three D2s in blue with the date 13 NOV 1907. This is one of the "curved" year cancellations. This is a peculiar postmark with another fixed date of 17 NOV 1908. Proud has given this cancellation a possible doubtful status. It has also been described as a reserve date stamp used when other date stamps were not available for what ever reason. It was also probably used for cancelling mint stamps for philatelic purposes. 
The hand stamp was made of rubber which probably accounts for the grainy appearance of the cancellation. It would be interesting to know whether subsequent degradation affected the appearance of the postmark like the the NB Papar D1 hand stamp.

                             A more recent D8 again with part of the year missing.

This is a relatively rare postmark D4 from Temburong, now known as Bangar. Temburong is actually the name of the district. It is usually in violet. Proud gives this a rarity rating of  x 200 which would value it at £1000!! But in reality, one should not paid more than a small multiple of the catalogue price.

This is D5 from Temburong with a rating of x 100 which would give a fancy value of £1200. Again, one should pay a lot lot less than this.
Update I am not sure whether I have interpreted Proud's valuation system in the right way. I have read the section in the preface of his book quite a few times and still not fully understood.

A very nice paquebot Labuan D10 with the D prefix. The known prefixes also include A, B and C. They were used concurrently as different prefixed cancellations can very rarely be seen on the same cover with  slightly different dates. It is thought they denote hand stamps issued to specific postal clerks. Other prefixes may exist as I have come across a prefix E for the Post Offiice Labuan postmark.

Another Labuan D10 but unfortunately not much of the date or prefix. These cancellations were probably used for letters posted at the mail boat as it left Brunei for Labuan and as such can be described as "Late Letters".

This has a Brunei post mark as well. The other cancellation which is probably another Labuan D10 was more of a transit marking for mail passing through Labuan.

This is rather unusual with having both a Brunei and a Singapore postmark. It probably did not reflect paquebot use and was more of an arrival or transit cancellation. A Singapore paquebot cancellation on a Brunei stamp would be extremely rare as the mail normally went through Labuan.

3 comments:

  1. Thanks Marcel. It is nice to get some encouragement. Hope to see you at the AGM in October.

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