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

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 which were overprinted Sabah with the top perforated margin. 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 finding. 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 hard pressed to find something similar.