Some early Jesselton items

The post office in Jesselton probably started in September 1900 when the District Office was moved from Gantian. Almost certainly, the company flag was raised on the subsequent New Year 's Day. Gantian was founded in June 1898 after the sacking of Gaya by Mat Salleh in 1897.
Unfortunately, it was a very bad choice with an unsettled harbour. It was also isolated from the mainland by mangrove swamps. But we had a post office and a rare postmark for a large part of 1900 before Gantian was abandoned in favour of Jesselton nearby to the south.
The Gayah post office continued until the end of 1899. Was it possible that Gantian made use of the Gaya canceller in this transitional period? I think this Gantian of old was located fairly near to the the present day Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) campus but do correct me if I am wrong.

This is a fairly early Jesselton D2 cds of 6 MAR 01. Where is D1? Did Proud expect it to be discovered sometime?

One can not asked better than this almost complete Jesselton D2 cds on one of my favourite North Borneo stamps.

This is an almost perfect arrival D2 cds of 19 DEC 00, probably the earliest example of this cancellation on a piece of postal history so far. It was posted from Sandakan on an overpaid card with a short Christmas and New Year greeting or you could say this was an early Christmas card. I wondered whether we are lucky here that we have an arrival cds due to the Sandakan cancellation been so faint. One can just about made out that it was posted 3 days previously.

Kudat D5

When I look at this stamp, I quickly realised why I collect North Borneo. The printing and pictorial content is really the best there was. And then this one has this really beautifully balanced postmark of Kudat D5 with the two Maltese crosses. 

It is probably the third most sought after of early Kudat postmarks after the earliest cancel with the undated double ring D1 and the very rare double ring BNBC fiscal cancellation which you can see by clicking here.

The date of the cancellation  is 13 SEP 97 and D5 was used between late 1895 and mid 1901.

This has an earlier date of NOV 96.

Another yet earlier date of JAN 96 on a postage due stamp. 

The date can not be made out but this must have been a very early use of this cancellation on this 1888 stamp.

I have seen one in blue and I consider that very desirable.