Fiscal Heaven 3

These are inverted versions of relatively uncommon fiscal perfins of North Borneo. They do not show up that well with an ordinary scan. With background illumination and photography, the details are clearly evident. The photos were taken using a Samsung Galaxy phone.

Scanned version of a inverted "Judicial" perfin.

Photo taken by placing stamp on lamp shade and then edited accordingly with photoshop.

This is with background daylight suspended in a transparency.

Scanned version of a inverted "Revenue" perfin.

With lamp shade in the background.

With a background of natural daylight.

Christmas Treat 2013: Fiscal Heaven 2

The cancellation for The Sabah Steamship Co. Ld / Incorporated at Sandakan / B.N.Borneo. This was founded by Harry Pfort, a former Blue Funnel ship captain. See Europe and the Maritime World: A Twentieth Century History page 66.

This could be the cancellation for The Residency of Kudat or of Sillam. I fancy the latter as it is in red.

I have shown the lower part before. Recently acquired the cancellation on the 1892 1c overprint and this cancellation is probably more uncommon on the lower values.

Lastly, season's greetings and best of luck philatelically for the coming year. Proud's book is the reference text for postal history of our territories.

Christmas Treat 2013: Fiscal Heaven 1

There has been quite a bit of interest in fiscal cancellations of late. Almost certainly, they are going for good prices when previously it might have been possible to get them for pennies or a few pounds.
The cancellations are visually more attractive usually.They tend to be quite large with the need to frank the document as well. So it is not that easy to obtain a satisfactory example. But the items should be considered as fiscal labels rather than postage stamps even though the term fiscal stamps is often used.
The following are composites of one of the commoner cancellations. Rather nice!

Real Photo Postcards or RPPC

Real Photo Postcards or RPPC are more uncommon than normal photogravure printed postcards as they were not produced in commercial quantities. It is unlikely that an individual item is unique but they were almost certainly printed in limited numbers.

I am not really much further in my knowledge of these 2 RPPCs. This scene is definitely Labuan as I have seen a very similar colour postcard from Labuan taken from almost the same direction. That was much later as deduced by the development of the shrubbery in the locality.
This postcard has a North Borneo stamp with a Labuan D7 cancellation with the date of 21 OCT 1908. It transited in Singapore on OC 26 1908 on its way to Germany. Labuan joined with Straits Settlements the previous year but somehow NB stamps were still valid for postage.

This item was sent at the same time as the one above and bears similar postal cancellations. This is a scene from Lahad Datu as confirmed by different pictures in existence taken from different perspectives.
The spelling of the name of this town went through a few minor changes in the early years. Here it is spelled "Lahad Datu" which is the final agreed version. But interestingly, the version used on the concurrent postal cancellation D3 (1902-1909) was "Lahat Datu".
Presently, while awaiting further evidence, I am assuming both these cards were produced in limited quantities locally in Labuan either by an enterprising individual or an actual photographic studio for sale. It is also very possible that these cards were commissioned privately by the sender. This is because there is a short message on the LD card to imply the photo was taken earlier on 13 October 08.
The quality of the images would have been better if produced overseas. It would also have been more expensive. As it stands, they should be incredibly uncommon.

This is definitely a self made and one off RPPC. The plaque in the photo is self explanatory. This concludes my recent series on postcards until such time when other interesting items are available.