Papar post office

As a settlement, Papar clearly predated Jesselton. Even though it had a district office, the post office was not opened until 1949. Prior to that the mail services were well served by the Travelling Post Office as the train on the west coast passes by the town.

This is a nice cover with Papar D1 in black. It is more often in violet. There are a few philatelic covers like this with the 1949 UPU set. This date was in use between September 1949 and May 1950. It is characterised by wavy lines in the two rings as a result of damage and distortion.

Examples of Papar D1 in black and violet

          D1 in violet on piece

With time, this rubber hand-stamp deteriorated probably as a result of using the wrong solvent cleaner and gave rise to this unclear cancellation.

With the D1 hand-stamp getting damaged to the point of giving a very poor and unclear impression, a new date stamp was introduced in May 1950 and used until July 1951. This is yet another temporary rubber hand-stamp. I find the above cover very attractive with red Chinese characters. The address of this little known photo studio should of much interest to local historians. This is what one would describe as a well constructed cover in that most of the spaces on the envelope were suitably occupied. Blank spaces are not attractive. Papar D2 is in violet and I have not seen it in black.

Papar D2 on piece

Another two other items with D2

This is Papar D4 (June 61-September 63). This is a star cancel and quite uncommon on cover. This item had suffered some water staining but is still quite attractive with a plethora of cancellations from Papar, Jesselton, Singapore and Penang.

Papar D3

Papar D4