Printing Re-entries in North Borneo and Labuan stamps

 

The re-entries stamps from the North Borneo 1911 high values set can be quite elusive and probably the catalogue prices understated their value and rarity. They are present in this set up to the $2 value. They are also known as double oar varieties but it is easier to pick them out from the doubling of the dots around the lion.

So why do re-entries occur? During a long run of printing, the printing plate might need to be repaired due to plate wearing or damage. It is a specific type of plate repair or alteration that occurs on line engraved printing plates. It occurs when a transfer roll from the Master Die is pressed back into a printing plate position to fix or strengthen a design impression. When the alignment of the new roll press is slightly off from the original, it creates a permanent design duplication.

I have the following sheets and stamps for some years but not really look at them until today. I bought them at the BPS auction as I guess this type of stuff is very specialised. Whoever compiled them in the first place spent a lot of effort and eye work.

Vignette Re-entries

Stamp 4

Stamp 5

Stamp 9

Stamp 71

Stamp 75

Frame Re-entries

Stamps 10 and 20

Stamp 30

Stamps 44 and 45

Stamps 50 and 65

Stamps 71 and 80

 

Stamp 82

Position of stamp unknown

These are some of the re-entries known on the 2c stamp from the 1894 and 1897 series. A more comprehensive list is present in The Stamps and Postal History of North Borneo part 3. 

A 7th Field Squadron Royal Australian Engineers cover from Keningau in 1964

 

This is another one of my purchases from the recent Borneo Philatelic Auction. This is the sort of very uncommon material that only comes up in a specialised auction even though it may rarely turned up on eBay. The first thing is a 10c North Borneo stamp used with a Keningau Sabah Malaysia postmark dated 3 JUL 64. The colonial 1961 stamp issue were withdrawn on 30 June 1964 and the SABAH overprints were put on sale the next day, 1 July 1964 together with new Sabah Malaysia dated cancellers. Though withdrawn, the North Borneo stamps were valid until 1 April 1970. 10c was the concessionary rate for Forces Air Mail as the normal rate to GB would have been 75c. 

On the cover is an etiquette for Forces Air Mail and more importantly the hand stamp for 7 Fd. Sqn RAE. This is the 7th Field Squadron Royal Australian Engineers which were stationed at Keningau in the Interior Residency during the Malaysia Indonesia Confrontation.They were there between mid 1964 and early 1965 with operations extending into the surrounding jungle and border regions near Indonesian Kalimantan. Their parent unit was normally based at Enoggera, Queensland.

Their primary mission was hearts and minds projects with local infrastructure development, defensive works and supporting Commonwealth security forces deployed along the border. At Keningau, they constructed and upgraded local airfields to facilitate light aircraft and helicopter supply runs for the troops and local communities. They also build roads and tracks to connect with remote settlements. Additionally, they helped construct local water supply systems, bridges, school serving the local native population. This secured local support against cross-border incursions by the Indonesians.

In the field, they helped to prepare or build defences, helipads, tactical bridges and provided route clearance with explosive ordnance disposal assistance where required. After a 6 month tour of duty, they were relieved by 1st Field Squadron RAE who continued engineering operations in Sabah as well as Sarawak in early 1965 until mid 1965. From mid 1965 to November 1965, it was the 24th Construction Squadron, RAE. This squadron under the codename Operation Granite carried out major heavy civil infrastructure tasks including cutting supply roads through rainforest and heavy mud. Lastly, the 21st Construction Squadron continued the work from November 1965 to June 1966, winding down as peace talks progressed.

This short article has been written with the help of  AI which means absolute accuracy cannot be guarantee.

A re routed 1895 postcard from GB to Labuan initially

 

This was one of my lucky buys at the recent Borneo Philatelic Society auction which was part of an AGM and study weekend held near Royal Leamington Spa. I also had the privilege of presenting a couple of topics. Anyway, this postcard was not commercially used as one can see in the back message. 

It is a One Penny postcard at the 1895 Imperial rate to British possessions overseas. It was posted at Newcastle on Tyne. Part of the Newcastle on Tyne Head Post Office 545 duplex cancellation was covered by the Labuan stamp. By shining a strong light from the back of the card, one could see the letters for Newcastle and the date of OC 10 95 which is confirmed by the written message at the back. It was sent to Labuan where a 1894 North Borneo 3c stamp was used for forwarding the card to South Africa. North Borneo stamps were valid in Labuan between 1890 and 1905 when it was administered by the British North Borneo Company.

Three cents was the postcard rate to GB and all UPU countries from 1894 to 1905. There is a Labuan backstamp for DE 31 189(5). The North Borneo pictorial 3c stamp was cancelled by the local 9 bar cancellation which by this time was used less and less as the dated cds was the preferred option as it was kinder to the beautiful designs of those stamp issues and definitely much more desired by collectors.

It was sent to Johannesburg in South Africa where after affixing 2 local One Penny stamps, it was sent back to Newcastle. South Africa used a rather unusual date format for its postal cancellations perhaps some Dutch influence here. The date seen of 16 MRT c' 6 should translate to 16 March 1896. The likelihood was that it did arrived back to Mr J Easton at Newcastle who sent it off in the first place. 

So who was J Easton at 17 Maple Street at Newcastle GB in 1895? Apparently this address was the family home of a prominent local tailor, Robert Easton. J Easton can have been John Easton who was his brother or Joseph Easton who was his son. One of them or all were likely keen philatelists in their day.

A few North Borneo plantation tokens

Collecting these tokens is an expensive hobby. They represent a very important part of North Borneo history which was much neglected by the governing administration. I have no qualms in describing these artefacts as slavery tokens as they were one of the means of controlling indentured workers who were often treated like slaves who were mostly neglected and sometimes punished harshly resulting in many injuries and deaths. This was  basically pushed under the carpet by the government in charge.

Currency shortage was the main excuse used in allowing plantation to issue their own monetary tokens. The reality was that it was a means of labour control. Workers were very often paid entirely with these tokens instead of the official currency or Mexican dollars which can only be used at the shops within the estate. These tokens were completely worthless outside which means there was little chance of the workers running away to seek alternate lives and work. They were trapped and these estates were little more than workhouses and vast prisons.  In 1920 a law for gradual abolition was introduced and the plantation token system was officially abolished in 1924 after many years of widespread exploitation, systemic abuse and mounting criticism.

These are some examples from Tenom Rubber, Labuk Planting Company and Pitas Estate respectively.  The introduction of a large population of Chinese and Javanese workers for the Tenom plantation as well as the nearby large Sapong and Melalap estates led to much resentment in the local Murut population. Vast areas of native lands were also requisitioned and cleared. This resulted in the Rundum Rebellion of 1915. And of course we were told the official side of the story and not how much humiliation and hardship the local Muruts had to endure. However, the rubber industry laid the infrastructure for the modern day diversification of various agricultural products that Tenom is well known for especially the coffee. The denominations for the Tenom tokens were 10c, 50c and $1. 

The Labuk Planting Company operated on the fertile banks of the Labuk River north of Sandakan on the east coast. Instead of the usual tobacco, this company specialised in planting Manila Hemp or abaca which was the world strongest natural fibre and used for making heavy duty marine ropes and fishing nets. This company tokens came in denominations of 10c, 20c, 50c and $1. 

The Pitas and Nicolina Estates were privately owned by a well known German agriculturist, H C Eduard Meyer. He was responsible for breeding and introducing improved varieties of common European staple crops such as wheat, potatoes, barley and oats in Europe. The estate employed a mixture of Javanese and Chinese indentured workers. The Pitas and Nicolina Estates token is very rarely seen. The tokens came in 50c and $1.

This is a well written synopsis that I found on the internet. It was probably written many years ago and was part of the Lam Research Archives but the original internet links no longer exist.

For hobbyists who are seriously collecting North Borneo plantation tokens, this book by A J Lansen might be worth buying but it is only 58 pages long which may reflect the sparse information that is available on this subject. 

Some peculiar perforation patterns in the De La Rue 1964 Sabah overprints

 

This 5c block has only only a single perforation at the side selvedge instead of being perforated all the way to the edge. Normally De La Rue sheets were not perforated at the top and this block of 6 has 2 perforations right at the edge of the top selvedge.

This 5c block is different in having only a single perforation at the top edge of the selvedge above and also perforated through at the side. 

This 6c block shows rows of 6 perforations at the top of the selvedge which are not in line with the normal vertical lines of perforations on this block. 

This $1 block of 4 shows staining of the surrounding white paper with the yellow green ink used for printing the border. It has multiple rows of perforations at the top selvedge with half of them in line with the normal vertical lines of perforation. There is only a single side perforation and this is normal for all the dollar values of this set. It is difficult to know why these extra perforations were done. Were they trials or done by mistake because they do not serve a defined purpose?

The use of fugitive inks in the De La Rue printing of the 1964 Sabah overprints

 

The inks used by De La Rue for printing the 1964 Sabah overprinted issue and perhaps also the reprints for the original North Borneo 1961 stamps can be fugitive. It mostly involved the inks used for printing the border. In the above 20 cent examples, the first stamp on the left has white margins. The second stamp also has white margins and was probably an overprint on returned Waterlow stock. The third and fourth stamps have obvious staining of the surrounding white margins with the blue ink used for the border. The fourth stamp also show partial staining of the attached selvedge above. 

Probably, a significant proportion of the inks used by De La Rue in printing this issue were fugitive. Here are some more examples where the colour inks had spread into the adjacent selvedge. 

The differences between the Waterlow and DLR North Borneo/Sabah printed stamps part 2

 The Printed Sheet Numbers

For the Waterlow stamps, the sheet number is located above stamp 10 on the first row. Here the sheets are perforated all through to the edge of the sheets whereas the bottom margins of Waterlow are not perforated.

These were printed by Thomas De La Rue and the top margins are not perforated whereas the bottom margins of the DLR sheets are. This is the exact opposite to what Waterlow was doing. There are no sheet numbers at this location. They should be there at this top selvedge but I do not know the exact position yet and it could be random.

DLR Reprints of the initial North Borneo 1961 issue

After De La Rue bought the Waterlow printing division around 1961, they were given the original printing plates. In 1962 and 1963, they had to do further reprints to satisfy demand. This was before the 1964 Sabah overprints were issued. It is almost impossible to differentiate between these two companies' printings without the top or bottom margins even though the De La Rue printings usually have a darker shade of colour.

The above are uncommonly found examples. Here we can see these North Borneo stamps have unperforated top margins and perforated bottom margins which are typical of sheets from De La Rue. The 1c block has two numbers at the top which are the printing plate numbers which are not normally present as they were routinely guillotined off after the sheets were printed.

Sabah Overprints on original Waterlow stamps

 

Many sheets of the original Waterlow printing were sent back to De La Rue for the Sabah overprints. On this cover, the block of 5c at the right top corner has been enlarged. These were Waterlow stamps with the top perforated margin which were overprinted SABAH by De La Rue. And above stamp 10 is the Waterlow sheet number and above stamp 9 is the De La Rue sheet number in red. This is a very unusual and rare finding. Apparently, 9000 sheets of the 5c value were returned from North Borneo for the overprint and the majority were the DLR reprints. This Waterlow printed block of 4 would be quite uncommon.

This cover was cancelled at Kuching on 1 JY 64 which was the first day of issue of these overprints. It has a very uncommon combination of North Borneo, Sabah, Sarawak and Malaysia stamps, philatelic of course but you would be extremely hard pressed to find something similar. The North Borneo stamps were actually withdrawn from sale the day before but were valid throughout Malaysia until 1 April 1970.

The differences between the Waterlow and DLR North Borneo/Sabah printed stamps part 1

 The Waterlow Company Imprint

The  company imprint is located just below the bottom row stamps 95 and 96 of the middle two columns of a sheet. It has the company name and the unusual address of London Wall, London EC which is actually a street in the City of London near to the Moorgate and Barbican London Underground stations. The other important characteristic here is the unperforated lower margin of these sheets by Waterlow.

The DLR Company Imprint

The DLR company imprint is located in the same situation as that of Waterlow with a slight differences in distance from the perforated edge even between the DLR sheets themselves. The bottom margins here are perforated in contrast to that of Waterlow. Moreover the depth of these bottom selvedges are individually different in comparison to the precision of Waterlow.

The border and vignette plate numbers

There was only one printing of these stamps by Waterlow and the all use Border 1 and Vignette 1 plates. The numbers are in their corresponding colours and the number on the left under stamp 99 is the border plate number and the right under stamp 100 is the vignette plate number.

For the DLR reprints and the stamps printed for the overprint of the 1c value, a new border plate was made and the plate numbers for this 1c value was 2 - 1. With the overprints new border plates were also made for the 6c and 12c values but for the 6c the border plate number 2 was placed under stamp 92 instead of the usual 99.

The other two features of note with these stamps are firstly the bottom paper margins were perforated through in contrast with the Waterlow printings. And secondly, there is staining of the surrounding white paper with usually the ink used for the border which is not seen in the Waterlow stamps. This aspect will be discussed at a later stage.

The last issue of North Borneo pictorial stamps in 1961

This was the last issue of pictorial stamps by North Borneo as well as the last printing of stamps by Waterlow & Sons for this part of the world. However, the last stamp issued by North Borneo was actually the Freedom From Hunger stamp in 1963 which was part of a commonwealth omnibus arrangement. It was obviously not a local design.

This was a two colour design recess printed in two steps with different printing plates for the border and the vignette. They were based on designs drawn by Chong Yun Fatt who was working at the agricultural department at Jesselton. They were in sheets of 100 watermark Block CA with a setting of 10x10. They were said to be perforated 13 but the long sides of the stamps were perforated nearer to 13.25 

Die Proofs

No die proofs were recorded in the company archives but in 2020, some came onto the market. The 4c, 5c, 12c, $2 and $5 separate border and vignette die proofs were listed. It is unclear as to whether these are the only surviving items or whether there are others squirreled away long term in vaults of certain dealers or collectors.

There were two vignette die proofs for the 4c in the different colours of cobalt blue and bronze green. The duller bronze green was chosen for the final stamp. The possible different and more exciting version has been shown in the above reconstruction.

In 1961, Waterlow was taken over by Purnell & Sons who very soon disposed of a large part of the printing division to another printer, Thomas De La Rue. There was only one printing of these stamps by Waterlow. The numbers are shown in the table above. The original printing plates were passed onto the new owners. 

Further printing of most of the values were carried out by DLR as shown in the above tables to satisfy demand. They were also in sheets of 100 with the same watermark. There were no DLR printings of the 4c, 20c, 35c, 50c, 75c, $5 and $10 without the Sabah overprint. The more frequent issuances of the 1c was due to philatelic demand for sheets and multiples rather than postal use. More 6c was needed as this was the local second class unsealed letter and printed paper rate. The 12c (2x6c) was the local rate as well as the surface rate to Sarawak, Malaya, Singapore and the Imperial rate. There was an ample amount of the 12c from initial Waterlow stock still available. 20c was the airmail rate to Malaya and Singapore from August 1959. More than 4 million 20c stamps were initially printed by Waterlow but more 10c were still printed. The North Borneo stamps of the 1961 set without overprint were withdrawn for sale at the post offices on 30 June 1964 but were still valid until 1 April 1970.

On 16 September 1963, North Borneo gained independence and officially changed its name to Sabah to become a state in the new nation of Malaysia. But it was not until 1 July 1964 that the name Sabah appeared in her stamps and postmarks. Prior to that, the remaining inventory of both the Waterlow and DLR printings were repatriated from North Borneo to Britain and overprinted "SABAH" and further stock were also printed.

There were a lot more of the Sabah overprints than what is in the above because many sheets of stamps were repatriated from the post offices in North Borneo to be overprinted. There are many interesting aspects to these two issues of stamps as well as differences between the Waterlow and De La Rue printings which will be discussed later.

References

Stanway, L C (2023) Malaysia and the Federation of Malaya - Their Stamps & Postal History. Chapter 13 pp 13.1 - 13.7

Stanley Gibbons Ltd (1970) Elizabethan Catalogue of Modern Commonwealth Stamps pp 472, 524