Two uncommon 1895 postage due errors and others

This is the 1895 2c postage due with the Postage Due overprint reading downwards. It is only available with a CTO bar cancellation. The most expensive variation would have the overprint reading upwards omitted in pair with a normal.

This 12c crocodile adhesive has the double overprint but unfortunately has some tone spots. Almost all the stamps in this issue have the double overprint variety. They are only available as CTO which is not surprising. You can draw your own conclusions.

I posted this a few years back but it is a good idea to put these errors on the same page. This shows the horizontal and inverted overprints for the 1895 18c postage due stamp.

 This 1902 18c postage due has the double overprint which is available mint or CTO.

I posted this a few weeks ago and I think this 1901-02 3c postage due with stop has the double overprint variety having bought it at the normal price.

More fiscal cancellations

I think this is the fiscal cancellation for E E Abrahamson, a company formed in 1886, mainly to exploit the timber resources around the Sandakan Bay with a depot on Copuan Island. This is a late use of this 1883 2c Transfer B adhesive.

E E Abrahamson was taken over in 1888 by The China Borneo Co Ltd in 1888. This is the likely fiscal cancellation. It is very similar to the one to E E Abrahamson which was quite logical. The presence of the bar cancellation probably meant that the bar cancellation was used fiscally as well in the absence of a suitable fiscal canceller. The cancellation was dated NOV 89.

Another one from the China Borneo Co Ltd with a clearer part date of cancellation also for NOV 90.

This is a very uncommon fiscal cancellation from H Broese Van Groenou which is not listed anywhere. He was the owner and manager of the Victoria coffee plantation of 20 acres near Kudat around 1895. He was also in charge of the lottery at the Marudu Turf Club and the club course at Bandau Estate where he owned a series of racing ponies called Bluntey, Cyclops and Totalisator. He worked as a licensed auctioneer as well and was appointed Kudat shipping agent for German Norddeutscher LLoyd Line (NDL) in 1904. In January of the same year, he married a Miss Van Vliet whose father was the doctor on the Batu Puteh Estate. He subsequently also planted rubber and then coconut. 

Yet another unlisted fiscal cancellation and this is for the (N BORNE)O EXPORT (DEPART)MENT.?

This is also an unlisted fiscal cancellation for HARRISONS & CROSFIELD. H&C brought out The China Borneo Co Ltd in 1919.

A few fiscal cancellations

Fiscal cancellations are usually better good looking and more interesting as compared to the normal postal cancellations. Not that many years ago, one could pick them up for a small fraction of their catalogue value from most dealers. Nowadays and especially from North Borneo, they are very much sought after and prices have become very competitive. 

Fiscal or revenue cancellations can be considered as part of social philately. They tell a story of commerce, the workings of various governmental departments and also the work of certain individuals in the development of the territory. 

I am starting off with a commercial cancellation which was not strictly indigenous to North Borneo. This was from the Straits Steamship Company in Singapore. This company was originally founded in 1890 by Theodore Cornelius Bogaardt. Postwar and with diversification, the company did not thrive and eventually taken over by the Keppel Corporation Ltd.

The stamp used here is from the postwar BMA issue and note how the BMA overprint is placed higher and more to the right than normal.

This is the extremely large fiscal cancellation for SUPERINTENDENT OF IMMIGRATION SANDAKAN. It would be marvelous to have the whole cancellation on an intact document if one still exists.

This is the fiscal chop for CHARTERED BANK OF INDIA, AUSTRALIA & CHINA. In the middle would read Mansfield Bogaardt & Co / AGENTS, the forerunner of the present day well known Chartered Bank.

This is one of the earliest dated fiscal cancellation from North Borneo as it has a clear date of 19 FEB 85. It is possibly an early form of either the Land & Survey Dept or the Judicial Dept cancellation. The later ones only have N Borneo in the lower part as compared to the full name here. It also looks like it was from Sandakan.  

North Borneo 1901-02 postage dues with raised stop variety

The 1897 pictorial set was overprint vertically or horizontally  for postage due purposes. But in 1901-02, a short set of the 3c, 5c and 8c including their colour shades were overprinted locally at Sandakan for use and this time, the overprint included a "stop".

These three stamps have the unrecorded "raised stop" variety. The 3c has been in my collection for some years and then I managed to find the 5c mint last year. The third stamp was bought by someone on ebay a few years ago but problem was that I did not notice the error then. But then the double ring cancellation was either fake or a late contrived cancel by favour. A one off error may not be accepted as consistent. But here we have three clear examples and so it is about time it is included in the stamp catalogues.

Included here are the 1897-99 and the 1901-2 8c overprints. The second stamp has the stop after "postage due" and was well used from Lahad Datu. Above them is the 1901 3c with stop in the normal position. It looks like a double overprint. 

These 2 postage dues are from the earlier 1895 set. The second stamp has a stop after the overprint but it seems a bit further away than normal. It would have to be compared with another good example to make sure it is authentic and not a blot of stray ink.

T or Unpaid mark on North Borneo covers

I have been looking at T marks recently. This is partly due to the recent appearance of a 1889 North Borneo combination cover from Kudat with an unrecorded T mark in a major auction. According to Proud, the earliest T mark appeared in Sandakan in 1891. The UPU decided that mail with not enough postage should be marked with a T  from 1 April 1879. The amount missing would also be indicated in black. By convention this amount was expressed in UPU centimes tied to the value of gold. The earliest postage due stamps were issued by France in 1859.
The amount charged was usually double what was missing to include a handling charge. With the varying value of gold, the exchange rate calculated became quite difficult. For example prior to 1940, one GB old penny equated to 10 UPU gold centimes but this went down as pound sterling depreciated postwar. Nowadays the Royal Mail charges a flat fee which includes handling.

This cover to the rare destination of Algiers was underpaid by 6c . It was sent from Sandakan on 4 JUN 1932. It has the T mark UP4(1898-1941). It is also a Retour cover with various return instructions. No payment of postage due was indicated and the cover was supposed to be redirected to New South Wales in Australia. One would have expected to see an Australian arrival cancellation.

This is a much later cover in 1955 with UP7(1947-1956) sent from Sandakan to Kampar in Perak. This is from a group of almost identical philatelic covers sent to J Bailey. It has a Malayan Postal Union 8c postage due. It has the correct rate of 4c for printed matter but was treated as ordinary mail possibly because the back of the envelope was sealed. Early postage due stamps from North Borneo were often cancelled on a payment memo slip separate from the cover. Such items from North Borneo can be expensive.

The Tenom UP4 mark is identical to UP7 from Sandakan. It is probably very uncommon as Proud only gave one date of 18.9.57 and this one here is from 3 NOV 48.